


Complications

by Foxtrot909



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Grenn Deserved a Happy Ending, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-02-29 04:29:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 36,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18771211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foxtrot909/pseuds/Foxtrot909
Summary: Modern AU where Gendry is student teaching in his best friends' hometown of Winterfell and finds an unexpected complication in the form of their baby sister, Arya.Almost entirely fluff, with a little angst, and some smut in later chapters. It's basically finished, so you won't have to stress about me taking years to update, I'll throw up a chapter every few days if people seem to enjoy the story.Gendry & Jon: 23Robb: 22Sansa: 20Arya: 18Bran: 17Rickon:15





	1. Chapter 1

Gendry Waters arrived in Winterfell late on a Tuesday afternoon. He was glad to see that it was before 5 P.M., so he would be able to pick up the key to the small furnished studio apartment his friend, another bastard, Jon Snow, had secured for him in the Northern town. He was tall, six foot four inches, and strong, with jet black hair and startlingly blue eyes. He would be starting his student teaching at Winterfell High School the following day.

Jon had found the apartment while he had been home in Winterfell over winter vacation. Jon had been born shortly after Ned Stark, a prominent businessman and the current CEO of Stark Industries, became engaged to his now wife, Catelyn. Jon had been the product of a one night stand that Ned had shortly before meeting Catelyn. The mother wanted nothing to do with the child, and if they didn’t want him, the boy would have been put up for adoption. The young couple did want children, so they took him in, and loved him just the same, even if they couldn’t legally give him the Stark name. Jon had five younger half siblings, two of which (Jon’s two favorites) attended the high school at which Gendry would be teaching.

Gendry already knew the two oldest Stark siblings. Robb lived with Jon and Gendry in Oldtown. They would all be graduating together in May. Robb was a year younger than Jon and Gendry, who had been freshman roommates. They both got into Oldtown University on football scholarships, though not for lack of intelligence. It was still the best university in the country. They had both redshirted their freshman year, as most scholarship athletes did. So they would graduate with Robb who was getting his degree in Business, before moving to King’s University in King’s Landing to do an MBA. Jon, was studying geology and would start his masters degree at the Wall in the fall. Gendry had wanted to teach high school history but about halfway through his college career, decided he would rather teach higher education and stay in academia. So he would be staying in Oldtown to start his PhD in the fall. 

Jon’s next oldest sibling was Sansa, who Gendry had met when she was visiting Jon and Robb a couple times. She attended an arts school in the Vale, and was two years younger than Robb. Gendry knew Jon’s next youngest sister was Arya, a senior at Winterfell High School. He knew she was Jon’s favorite, but that was about it. Then, one year younger was Bran, with whom Jon rock-climbed, and another boy two years later named Rickon. 

Gendry had a hard time imagining growing up with five siblings. It had been just him and his mum until he had been fifteen, when she met a man named Bronn. He was alright to Gendry, not really knowing how to be a father, but he made his mum happy and he was nice enough, so Gendry never minded him. They got married and moved into Bronn’s small house on the beach where he lived with his dog the summer before Gendry’s senior year of high school. He was glad not to have to leave his mum alone when he left for college. 

After unloading the few belongings he had brought, mostly clothing and books, Gendry decided to drive around and find somewhere to get takeout, settling on a sandwich shop in the center of town near the high school. When he got back to his new home, he read for a while and turned in early.  
*********  
By lunch the next day, Gendry was exhausted. He thought it would be weird teaching students so close to him in age. But he felt very old by lunch, not understanding teenagers at all. They were just the worst.

He did have Bran in his first class after lunch, and was relieved to find him to be very much like Jon, studious and reserved. He did, however, look more like Robb and Sansa, with auburn hair and blue eyes. He made a small mental note to keep an eye out for another ginger, as the Stark siblings clearly favored genes that Jon did not have. 

He didn’t do much teaching the first day, just introduced himself, talked to the class a little, and then observed. He would slowly teach more until fully taking over the classes by mid-February. He was relieved to get to the last class of the day, an advanced placement course for seniors. He hoped for a more serious batch of kids. He felt a little pervy when he noticed a very pretty, and very short girl with shoulder-length brown hair and gray eyes slide into a seat at the front and start chatting with a girl with very curly hair behind her. When he checked his seating chart to find out her name, he almost fell out of his chair.

Arya Stark.

He shook himself. It was not okay to look at her that way because he was her teacher. It was not okay to look at her that way because she was the baby sister of his two closest friends. He tried really hard not to think, “At least she’s legal,” remembering when Robb and Jon had flown home for her eighteenth birthday the previous fall. But no. She might be legal, but she was still too young for him to even look at. So he wouldn’t even look. He had not anticipated this problem with student teaching. He also did not anticipate Arya approaching him after class.

“Hey, I, uh… I think you lived with my brothers? I recognize you from pictures on Facebook, and I know your name from stories. Also I guess they mentioned that you would be here… Anyway, it felt weird not introducing myself. I’m Arya Stark.”

Gendry sat there in shock for a few seconds, wondering how her voice could be so beautiful, but stood up quickly, sticking out his hand.

“Gendry. Which I guess you already knew. I think you still have to call me Mr. Waters though.”

Arya laughed and Gendry decided it sounded like bells.

“Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you then, Mr. Waters,” Arya said with a wave, heading out the door of the classroom. Gendry sat down quickly, feeling the need to hide the tightening of his pants that had happened when Arya had called him Mr. Waters. This was terribly inconvenient.  
********  
Arya Stark: Call me when you can.

Arya texted her sister as soon as she got home from school. She set her phone on her bed and sat down on the floor next to Nymeria, who rolled onto her back so Arya could rub her belly. She was a huge dog, almost the same size as Arya, but she was gentle and protective of her master. She grabbed her backpack and pulled out her homework, working on calculus next to her slumbering mutt for about an hour before her phone rang.

“Hey Ar, what’s going on?” Sansa’s voice rang out in Arya’s room as she put the phone on speaker.

“Um, you failed to mention that Robb and Jon’s roommate is the hottest man this side of the Narrow Sea, that’s what’s going on!” Arya responded enthusiastically.

Sansa laughed loudly for a minute before responding. “Well, I didn’t know I needed to. You have seen pictures of him. So I assume you have him as a student teacher?”

“Yep. Bran too. Pictures don’t do him justice I guess. In real life, he’s all tall and muscly. And oh my god, his eyes, Sansa! They’re the color of the sea in Braavos. Oh and his voice. It does things to me.”

“Gross. When did you get all girly?”

“Oh shut up. A hot student teacher is everything I could have asked for my last semester of high school. I deserve this.”

“What does Gendry teach again? English?”

“Mr. Waters teaches history.”

“Are you gonna get weird about this, Arya? Do I need to warn Jon and Robb that you’re gonna scare away their best friend?”

“Of course not! That’s why I have you! I’ll be weird about it to you to get it out of my system, and then I will be able to act perfectly normal in school!”

“Great. That sounds super fun for me,” Sansa drawled in a sarcastic voice, and Arya felt proud of how much she had taught her sister about the art of sarcasm. “I suppose I should just be grateful to get a little girl talk out of you.”

“Damn straight. So how are things?”

The sisters talked for another twenty minutes until Arya decided she needed to get back to her homework. She was able to focus for about twenty minutes before she decided she needed to text Jon.

Arya Stark: So I have Mr. Waters as a student teacher.

Jon Snow: Don’t call him that. It’s weird. 

Jon Snow: How did he do though?

Arya Stark: Well he told me I have to call him that, even after I introduced myself as the little sister of his two best friends, so… I don’t know what to tell you, bro. He did fine though. I think he’ll be a good fit.

Jon Snow: Do you know if he has Bran too?

Arya Stark: Yeah. We talked about it in the car after school.

Jon Snow: Cool. I should probably text him and ask how it went…

Arya Stark: Only if you want to be a good friend.

Arya felt a little bad. She knew that Gendry (because fuck it, she could call him whatever she wanted to call him in her head) was her teacher, and she knew her brothers would be uncomfortable if they found out about her new crush. It made her uneasy but she could trust Sansa not to tell them, and she had always been good about hiding things she didn’t want other people to know about. She also knew it was absolutely hopeless, specifically because he was her teacher. But she did graduate soon, and maybe there was a little hope for the future. He would still be in her life, if he was as close with her brothers as it seemed. 

She also knew that he was way out of her league. He was athletic, and probably popular if he hung out with Robb and Jon. How could you look like that and not be popular? Arya was just a short, skinny nobody. She mostly just flew below the radar. She enjoyed music and travel and foreign languages, all of which she could enjoy by herself. She was nothing like her tall beautiful sister with her long red hair, who had people falling over to be her friend or more everywhere she went. She had one close friend, Meera, and even that had the extra aspect of Meera being Bran’s girlfriend. Arya knew she wasn’t great at making friends, so she doubted Gendry would even register her presence most days.

Then again, maybe whatever it was that had kept Ned Dayne in love with her for years, or inspired Ramsey Snow to stalk her for a year before her parents filed a restraining order would work on Gendry too. Preferably without the stalking. She was just going to have to figure out a way to spend some time with him, to see if her subtle charms would be effective.

Arya was starting to understand Sansa and why she always got so excited about a new crush.  
**********  
Jon Snow: Arya and Bran said they both ended up with you. How was your first day?

Gendry opened the text as he was heading to bed.

Gendry Waters: It was alright. My mentor teacher is great. But, at the risk of sounding old, teenagers are the worst. I like Bran though, he reminds me of you. And Arya’s very friendly. She introduced herself after class.

He hoped he had said enough about the day to draw attention from his thoughts on Arya. Jon would notice if he was being weird. Luckily for him, he didn’t.

Jon Snow: Yeah she told me. She said it seemed like you’d be a good fit. 

Gendry groaned, setting his phone on his bedside table and rolling over. He fell into a fitful sleep, using all of his self control not to grab his cock and find his release thinking about Arya Stark and her perfect ass, the way she said “Mr. Waters,” or being a good fit for her, in all kinds of ways.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 2 cuz you all so nice.
> 
> Arya and Gendry get to know each other a little on Valentine's Day.

Over the next month, Arya found it extremely difficult to spend time with Gendry, or get to know him at all really. He always seemed engaged and friendly when she would talk to him about school work, but if she tried to steer the conversation towards her brothers or anything remotely personal, he would always make an excuse and leave. She did notice that he seemed genuinely happy to talk to her about school work, and she would look up during class and find him looking at her often, but he was completely unresponsive to her attempts to flirt. She wasn’t even really trying to flirt, just maybe get to know him a little. By Valentine’s Day, Arya was feeling a little discouraged.

Valentine’s Day was a Saturday, and she woke up late in the morning. She rolled out of bed and went downstairs, smelling bacon. She helped herself to the breakfast that her mother was keeping warm in the oven, and took her plate out to the living room to see who was still around. She found Bran and Meera canoodling on the couch while football played quietly on the TV.

“Can you two do that somewhere else? It’s not even noon,” Arya grumbled as she settled in a chair and started eating. 

“Normally I would probably let you win this argument, but it’s Valentine’s Day and if I want to act mushy with my boyfriend, nothing is going to stop me,” Meera said, not even looking at Arya. 

“Yeah, well, he is my brother. Even on Valentine’s Day. So what are we doing today?”

“WE aren’t doing anything, sweet sister. I’m taking my girlfriend on an adventure and you’re going to have to entertain yourself,” Bran said, looking appalled that Arya would think she would be welcome to join them.

“Well, I had to try. Whatever, I have stuff to do anyway,” Arya said as she finished shoveling her breakfast into her mouth, before getting back up and heading to the kitchen to put away her dirty plate.

It wasn’t technically a lie. Arya did have things she had been putting off for weeks. But she was hoping maybe her brother would take pity on her and remember that Sansa was gone again, and Meera was her only friend in Winterfell. There were other people she could probably spend time with, and there were probably parties should could find if she asked around. But they were the people that used to call her “Arya Horseface” with Jeyne Poole, and even if they wanted to hang out with her since she grew boobs, she couldn’t quite forgive them for how awful they used to be. 

She didn’t feel like sitting around the house by herself all day. So she dressed in a pair of faded jeans and an oversized dark grey sweater, and her beat up black converse. She grabbed her keys and wallet and headed into town. She stopped first at her hairstylist for a trim, then went over to the gardening store. She had started buying her mother a bush for her rose garden every year for Mother’s Day when she was thirteen, and had decided on a hard to find variety of blue winter roses for this year. She had a conversation with the manager about finding the specific plant she was looking for, and she assured Arya that it would arrive in time for Mother’s Day. She grabbed a quick lunch at the Sandwich Shoppe before heading over to the mechanic that the Starks always used, Cassel’s, to get the oil changed in her car.

“Hello Arya,” Jory greeted her warmly from behind the counter. “What can I do for you today?”

“I need an oil change, and probably my tires rotated. Think you could fit me in this afternoon?” Arya said with a smile. She had known Jory as long as she could remember, and he was always a friendly face.

“Of course, Little Wolf,” Arya smiled at her childhood nickname, before handing her keys to Jory, who handed them to…

“Mr. Waters?”

“Uh… Yeah you can call me Gendry here. That was weird,” Gendry said with a laugh, taking the keys.

“Unfortunately, I need to head home to prepare for my date with the old lady tonight, so Gendry will be taking care of you today. Glad you know each other already. She likes to watch,” Jory said, clapping Gendry on the shoulder. Neither Jory, nor Arya noticed Gendry turn red at Jory’s choice of words. 

Arya walked around the counter and gestured forward saying, “Lead the way, Gendry,” trying to mimic Sansa’s sexy voice that she used on guys as she said his name. 

She perched herself on the workbench while Gendry pulled her car into the garage. He put it in park, popped the hood, and got out. She couldn’t help thinking how much she liked Mechanic Gendry. He was dirty and rugged. It was a very sexy look. She wondered what his greasy hands would feel like on her skin. As he lifted the hood and began to check fluid levels and air filters, she hopped down and walked over to stand next to him and watch what he was doing.

“So you’re a mechanic?”

“Only on Saturdays. I started working in a garage in King’s Landing when I was fifteen to save for college. Jon hooked me up here for the semester, since I don’t have any other source of income while I student teach.”

“What, they don’t pay you?” Arya said, confused.

Gendry smirked and looked up at Arya from where he was bent over under the hood of the car. “Um… no… I’m a student.”

“Wait wait wait… Do you still have to pay tuition?”

“Yep.”

“That. Is total. Bullshit.” Arya deadpanned, baffled at how outrageously unfair that is.

At that, Gendry stood up and laughed loudly. “I won’t argue with that. I’m still on scholarship though, so don’t worry about me too much.” Looking down at her, he noticed that the top of her head didn’t even reach his collarbone, having never been this close to her while they were both standing before. “Have you always been this short?”

“Shut up, stupid,” Arya mumbled, turning her attention back to the engine. Like she hadn’t noticed she wasn’t tall and statuesque like her sister. She was sure that’s what he was comparing her to. She walked back over and sat on the bench again.

Gendry noticed that she didn’t seem to find their height discrepancy very amusing. “Hey I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s cute, how short you are,” he said, before remembering who he was and who she was and all the reasons he shouldn’t have said that.

Arya simply looked back up at him, flushing slightly, as if he were a puzzle. They held eye contact for a minute, before Gendry turned back to the engine and continued working, thinking about how much he had enjoyed making her blush.

They wiled away the rest of the time talking about Gendry’s life with her brothers in Oldtown, and how excited Arya was to move there for college in the fall. Gendry hadn’t realized that was where she would be attending, and he couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful. 

It had been increasingly difficult for Gendry to fight off his lecherous thoughts about Arya. It seemed she was determined to get to know him, and as a result, he had to take cold showers as soon as he got home most days, and that only worked about half the time. He had done his best to limit their conversations to things school related, but even then he still had to be face to face with her plump breasts that he thought might be the perfect size for his hands when she would lean over the desk to talk to him. He still had to look into the gray pools of her eyes that reminded him of the sea back in King’s Landing on a stormy day. He knew that if she was Jon’s favorite sister, there is no way he wouldn’t be in even deeper shit if he were to really get to know her. Hell, he was half in love with her already. And he felt like a bloody teenager. Everything she did made him hard.

But at the garage, it didn’t feel like he was her teacher. It didn’t feel wrong talking to her about his life and hers. Laughing with her felt so good.

After he finished with her car, he pulled it out into the parking lot while she settled up her bill. He was getting out as she walked out of the office. 

“So I assume it’s back to ‘Mr. Waters’ on Monday?” Arya asked as she approached him.

“‘Fraid so. Wouldn’t want the other students to think I’m showing favoritism,” Gendry said without thinking.

Arya’s eyes went wide and she had a wicked idea. She stepped very close to Gendry, clasped her hands behind her back to push her breasts out slightly, and looked up at him through her eyelashes. “Are you saying I’m your favorite?”

Gendry swallowed hard and felt his cheeks flush and his cock stiffen. He managed to croak out “Don’t tell,” before dropping the keys into her hands and all but running back into the garage.

As soon as Arya pulled out of the parking lot, she called Sansa, who picked up on the second ring.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!” Arya squealed into the phone.

“Oh my god what is wrong with you?” Sansa said, sounding like she was holding the phone away from her ear.

“Okay I know you’re getting ready for your date so I will try to be quick.” Arya quickly filled Sansa in on the events of the afternoon.

“Hmmmmm…” was all Sansa said.

“Well, what do you think?” Arya said, annoyed at her lack of enthusiasm. 

“It does sound like he might like you. Which is kind of upsetting.”

“What? Sansa—“

“Let me finish. It’s one thing for you to have a crush on your hunky student teacher. It is quite another thing for him to reciprocate, Arya. He seems to be aware that it’s inappropriate at least. If he can continue to control himself, and not cross a line, maybe I could support something happening in the future when he is no longer your teacher, but until then…” Sansa finished, trailing off.

“Well duh. You really don’t need to worry, the last thing I want is to get him in trouble. But he’s starting his Ph.D. in Oldtown this fall!” Arya said, hoping Sansa would see the possibilities.

“See, now I can get on board with that. Just be patient, Arya. Now tell me, did his pupils dilate when you tried my boob trick?”

“I think so? Ugh, why?”

“God you’re such a virgin. It’s a sign of arousal, Arya.”

“Oh.” Arya blushed. “Anyway, have fun on your date tonight!”

“I will. Love you.”

“I love you too, Sans.”   
*********  
He wasn’t surprised when Arya came into the garage. He knew it was a possibility as Jon had gotten him a job with the mechanic the Stark family went to. He had found it so easy to chat with her at the garage. But what the hell was that right before she left? She was definitely flirting. Did she know the effect she had on him? Did she have feelings for him as well? Either way, when he arrived home an hour later. He decided his self-control when she had pulled that little stunt had earned him a good wank, so he didn’t bother with his usual cold shower.

What he had wanted to do when she did that was throw her on the hood of her car and rip her clothes off. What he had done instead was say something dumb and walk away. So for once, he allowed himself to entertain his fantasies about Arya, and he would be lying if he said it wasn’t the best wank he ever had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep up the feedback please!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPRING BREAK WOOOOOOO!!!!!!
> 
> Jon, Robb, and Gendry get drunk.

Over the next month, Gendry allowed himself to be a little less guarded with Arya, letting her steer the conversation away from history. Sometimes, if no one was close by, he would tease her a little, just so he could see her blush. He learned that they shared a favorite band, and that she loved true crime. He told her a little bit about his mother and step-father, and how he and Jon had bonded over being bastards. 

One Friday in mid-March, Jon called him in the evening to remind him that he and Robb would be flying into Winterfell the following morning for Spring Break. The three of them had plans to go out that night, and Gendry was supposed to come over to the Stark house for dinner on Sunday night. 

On Saturday evening, Gendry arrived at the bar he was told, which was conveniently just a couple blocks from his apartment. He found a table and Robb and Jon arrived within five minutes. They all hugged and ordered beers. 

Five hours later, all three men were quite drunk and about ready to call it a night. But it seems Jon had something on his mind first. “So what’s been going on with you man? Student teaching pretty stressful?” He mumbled, looking at Gendry.

“Whatdoyamean?” Gendry slurred out.

“Well, you’ve been pretty withdrawn I guess. You don’t ever really text unless we contact you first and you don’t really say much when we do hear from you. It seems like something is going on that you’re not letting onto.”

“It’s true man. I know you’re a thousand miles away, but you’ve been super distant,” Robb said while making eyes at the bartender and grinning at his own joke.

Gendry sighed heavily, wondering how much he could say without rousing suspicion that he was talking about their baby sister. “Well… I guess student teaching has come with some… Unexpected complications. Kind of thrown me for a loop.”

“Unexpected complications?” Jon was very confused. Robb, however, was not, and burst out laughing.

When he finally caught his breath, he explained to Jon in a low voice, “A girl. He’s talking about a girl. A high school girl.”

Gendry groaned, letting his head fall on the table, as Robb waved over the bartender and ordered them another round of beers and shots. Gendry was grateful. Robb always knew just what to do. At least in terms of drinking.

“So man. Tell us about her,” Robb said while Jon just continued to look shocked.

“I can’t. I can’t talk about her. I can barely even think about her. I feel like such a fucking creep all the time. I mean, she’s eighteen so that gives me a little peace of mind, but mostly I just feel gross. I’ve worked really hard to ignore and hide the feelings, hoping they will go away, and that’s the mindset I have to stay in or I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Damn. This girl must be pretty hot,” Robb said.

Gendry tried not to grimace, knowing Robb was talking about his own sister without knowing it. “Well… It’s so much more than that. I mean, yes, she’s beautiful. Her eyes… But she’s also smart as hell, and funny, and quirky, and she has great taste in music. She doesn’t even know how sexy she is,” Gendry slurred out in a rush. “Damn. Now I’m thinking about her.

“I think we need more shots,” Robb said, waving at the bartender.

“Okay but that’s it. Finish up your beers too, I’m gonna call Arya to pick us up,” Jon said, pulling out his phone and trying not to look too scandalized.

Gendry felt his stomach drop. This couldn’t end well. But he figured his best bet was to not draw attention to it, so he tried to sit still and look wistful. Their shots came, they paid the tab, finished their beers, and headed outside. 

“Well, I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow at seven,” Gendry said, turning towards his apartment, just as he saw Arya’s car pull up. 

“Don’t be stupid, mate. Arya can give you a ride. It’s cold, and you’re a wimp,” Jon said, getting into the backseat. “I’ll even let you have shotgun, since you’re a giant.”

“You really are absurdly large.” Gendry had not noticed Arya get out of the car to help Robb get into the backseat on the driver’s side. She was leaning in the open door by the drivers seat and smirking at him over the roof of the car. “Get in. I won’t tell your boss.” He was pretty sure she winked before she got in the front seat. Gendry took a deep breath and sat down in the passenger seat. There was nothing that could have prepared him for what Arya was wearing. 

When he looked at her to give her directions to his apartment, he saw a very short and tight pair of shorts, a sports bra, and a zip up hoodie that was definitely not zipped up. And that was it. He noticed her flat but toned stomach, and he soft and creamy thighs that he so desperately wanted to bury he’s head between before he choked out passable directions to his apartment and looked forward. He did not say another word, and both Robb and Jon were snoring in the backseat by the time they pulled up four blocks away.

He allowed himself one more look at Arya before getting out of the car, saying in barely above a whisper, “Thanks for the ride, m’lady.”

“Don’t call me that,” she said, but she was smiling lightly and reached across the center console to grab his hand which was resting on his knee, and lightly squeezed it. Before he could think about what he was doing, he grabbed her hand before she pulled it away, brought it to his mouth, and pressed his lips to the palm. He dropped it quickly and was out of the car before Arya had fully processed what had happened.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunday at the Stark's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really sure if anyone is going to be in the mood for this after that episode, but I promised, so here's chapter 4.

Gendry woke up around ten the next morning feeling like he had been hit by a truck. Apparently he couldn’t drink like that anymore. He had been standing in his shower for about five minutes hoping the hot water would wash away his hangover when he remembered what he had done before getting out of Arya’s car. He lowered himself to the floor of the shower and put his head between his hands, groaning, “I should not have done that,” repeatedly until long after the water ran cold.  
********  
Group text

Robb Stark: What the fuck happened last night? Is this what death feels like?” 

Jon Snow: No. Death feels like Arya bouncing into your room at seven this morning with Nymeria and Ghost begging you to go on a run with them. Bitch got a pillow thrown at her. 

Robb Stark: You’re a vicious man, Jon. Do you smell bacon?

Jon Snow: And pancakes. Meet in the kitchen? Gen, wanna come over early? Mum made pancakes and bacon!

Jon Snow: Gendry?

Robb Stark: Are you dead? Jon, did we kill our best friend?

Jon Snow: If you haven’t responded by noon, we’re coming to collect your corpse.

Gendry received all of those text messages when he stepped out of the shower. He finished reading them and looked at the clock. 11:48. 

Gendry Waters: Sorry guys, I was in my shower praying for death. Let’s never drink again.

Robb Stark: Sounds good to me. You should come hang out until dinner.

Gendry Waters: Alright. I’ll need directions.

Half an hour later, Gendry was slowly driving through the nicest part of Winterfell he had yet been in. When he located the correct house, he pulled into the loop in the front and turned off his car, letting out a low whistle and wondering again at the differences between the way Jon and Robb had grown up versus the way Gendry had.

He walked up the front steps and knocked on the door, praying for anyone but Arya to answer. He was not disappointed when the door was opened by a man who looked like Jon would in about twenty-five years. The man could only be Ned Stark, and he looked very startled. 

Sticking out his hand, Gendry said, “Hello Mr. Stark. I’m Gendry Waters, I’m a friend of Robb and Jon’s.”

Ned Stark shook off whatever it was that had bothered him and grasped Gendry’s hand and smiled. “Of course, please come in Gendry. I’ll show you to the game room, the boys should be there.”

He stood aside, letting Gendry into the house, and closed the door. He gestured for him to follow down a hallway to the right of the front door. “So you’re teaching at the high school. How’s that going?”

“It’s alright, sir. Secondary education isn’t exactly my passion, but it’s been a good experience. I’m going to start my Ph.D. at Oldtown starting this fall so that I can teach at a college level. But I figured the student teaching experience would still be good practice.”

“I know Bran and Arya have enjoyed having you so far. Arya just raves about how good of a teacher you are.”

“I suppose that’s good,” Gendry laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding eye contact as they stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway. 

“Well, here you are. I’ll talk to you later, I’m sure Gendry,” Ned said, opening the door slightly before turning and heading back down the hall.

Gendry let himself into the game room, finding all five Stark children, as well as Jon, spread out over the large room. Bran was sitting at the table closest to the door trying to teach a boy who Gendry assumed was Rickon how to play chess. Jon and Robb were behind them on the couch playing video games. There was a loveseat on the other side of the couch, and behind that was another table where Sansa appeared to be drawing, and sitting next to her, Arya was playing cards. The two girls were leaning close and talking in hushed voices.

“Gendry’s here!” Robb yelled without looking away from the television.

“Hey Mr. Waters,” Bran and Arya said in unison.

“Don’t call him that. It makes me feel old,” Jon grumbled.

“I suppose you guys can call me Gendry for today,” Gendry said, chuckling at Jon’s reaction. He quickly went to sit on the loveseat, glad to have his back to Arya.

As soon as he sat down, a very large dog walked around from behind the loveseat, and stopped in front of him, looking directly into his face. 

“Careful dude, Nymeria doesn’t like men very much. She doesn’t really like anyone besides Arya actually,” Jon said, pausing the video game and tensing, as if preparing to pull her away if she attacked him.

Gendry sat very still, hoping she didn’t rip his face off as she placed her front paws on his knees, leaned in very close and sniffed his face. She then jumped up onto the couch next to him and laid her head on his lap. 

“Huh,” Jon said. “What did you do? I’ve been trying to get on her good side for six years.”

“Maybe she just likes the smell of my soap?” Gendry suggested, cautiously placing a hand on the large dog’s head and scratching her ears. She leaned into his hand.

“Yeah Jon, maybe she would like you better if you bathed more often,” Arya said from behind him, and Jon scowled as everyone laughed.

“There’s pizza in the kitchen if you’re hungry,” Robb said, as he resumed the video game. “When you get back we can find a three player game.”

“Pizza would be great. I’m starving. But I don’t know where the kitchen is…”

“I can show you. I need a refill anyway,” Arya said from behind him. He suppressed a groan as he stood up, following Arya out of the room and back down the hallway.

“So how are you feeling?” Arya asked, smirking as usual.

“Oh I’ve been a whole lot better. I’m hoping the pizza will help. Also, uh, I think I owe you a thank you. I’m about 90 percent sure you gave me a ride home last night. Not my most professional moment.”

They walked past the front door and through an archway into a large and bright kitchen. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it. You thanked me last night. I can’t believe all three of you blacked out. I remember my first beer,” Arya said as she pulled a couple pizza boxes out of the oven.

“Ouch!” Gendry responded, opening the top box and grabbing a slice. He was glad she seemed to accept his feigned ignorance to the end of the evening the night before. It was about all he could think of to avoid discussing what he had done. “I’m an old man Arya. I can’t drink like I could when I was a senior in high school anymore.”

“Oh my god what are you, 23? That barely counts as a real adult. You should be able to hold your liquor better than that,” Arya said, grabbing a pitcher of lemonade out of the fridge. “You need a drink?”

“Just water.”

Once Gendry had another slice of pizza and they both had full glasses, they headed back to the game room while Arya did a very funny and very accurate impression of drunk Robb. Nymeria settled back on the loveseat next to Gendry with her head on his lap.

The rest of the afternoon passed with a Mario Kart tournament between all seven of them followed by a movie and some quiet time for the three hungover men. At about a quarter to seven, a pretty older woman who looked a lot like Sansa came in and told her children to set the table, then introduced herself to Gendry as Catelyn Stark.

Dinner was delicious. Catelyn Stark had to be one of the best cooks in Westeros. Gendry ended up sitting between Robb and Sansa, across from Arya and Jon. Robb caught him up on the gossip from Oldtown. Ned asked him about his job at Cassel’s. Arya’s feet kept bumping his knee as she crossed and uncrossed her legs under the table. Sansa talked about her most recent breakup. She wasn’t too upset, and she had decided she was done dating artists. Rickon talked about football. Arya ate so much food that Gendry was having trouble keeping up with her. No one else seemed surprised. Jon had received his rooming information for his graduate program at the wall. He had been put in a single apartment and he was allowed to bring his dog, Ghost. Catelyn told Sansa about the gourmet cooking class she had been taking. Arya kept making little noises of pleasure every couple of bites. 

“You should find something else to look at, or someone else is going to notice your hard-on for my sister,” Sansa leaned over and muttered to Gendry when Catelyn and Rickon got up to clear dishes and get dessert. Gendry started to cough, choking a bit on the water he had been drinking. She nonchalantly patted him on the back until he cleared his airway. 

“Was I that obvious?” Gendry whispered, keeping his eyes fixed on the table in front of him. 

“Only because I know about your little mistake last night. Although I suppose you don’t. It wasn’t too bad, don’t worry,” Sansa paused, not receiving the panicked reaction she had been expecting. “Or perhaps you remember more than you let on?” Gendry nodded, looking at Sansa sheepishly. “Hmmmm…" she said, contemplating him for a moment. "Don’t fuck this up. You’ve got, what, six weeks left? If you’re ever going to get my brothers or our parents to support a real relationship between the two of you, you cannot cross that line again while you’re her teacher. I have a feeling she’s gonna make it hard, but you can do it. For what it’s worth, I’m on your side, and she’s definitely worth the wait.”

When Sansa finished her little whispered speech, she grabbed her plate and Gendry’s and followed her mother and Rickon into the kitchen, leaving Gendry sitting at the table, trying hard to look at anything but Arya. 

“So Gendry, do you still have family in King’s Landing?” Ned asked, giving Gendry something else to focus on.

“Yep. My mum and her husband still live there, as well as my grandfather. I suppose my father might too, but I wouldn’t know,” Gendry would normally feel uncomfortable sharing that last piece of information, but given that Jon also had an absentee parent, he figured he wouldn’t receive any judgement from the Starks. But when his eyes drifted back towards Arya, she was giving him an odd look. It wasn’t pity, which he was grateful for, but it was once again like she was putting together a puzzle. 

“I see. Do you get along with your step-father?” Ned asked, drawing Gendry’s attention back to the head of the table.

Gendry was beginning to find the whole line of questioning a bit strange, but he figured, being the father of another bastard, Ned was just concerned for his well-being.

“Yeah. Bronn is a good guy. But they got married when I was seventeen so it’s not like he had much of an opportunity to be a father figure or anything like that. But he makes my mum happy and he makes an effort to be nice to me and bond where he can, so I suppose that’s all I could have asked for. Plus it was nice not to have to leave my mum alone when I left for college,” Gendry answered as Catelyn, Rickon, and Sansa returned with mini lemon cakes for everyone. 

The rest of the evening passed without incident, and Gendry managed to keep his eyes to himself for the most part. Jon and Robb talked him into coming over for dinner for the rest of the week, as he was going to be working at the garage during the days and would not have any other time to hang out. It was going to be a long week.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A revelation.
> 
> I just stayed awake all night alternating between crying about how bad that episode was and contemplating how I should have posted Chapter 4 and 5 as one chapter. But that would have been a super long chapter. But they go together, so here you go.

Sansa had been right about Arya making things difficult for him. It seems she had taken note of the efficacy of her workout clothes, and showed up to dinner in varying amounts of revealing spandex all week. By the following Saturday afternoon, Gendry was so frustrated, all he wanted to do after work was go home, but it was his friends’ last night in town, so he sucked it up and went to the Stark house for one last dinner. 

It was Arya who let him in, and though she was wearing another very short pair of shorts, she had a large hoodie on top. Perhaps she had grown tired of torturing him. 

“Hey, Gendry. We’re gonna get Braavosi takeout tonight. My dad’s in his office, he said to just go tell him what you want when you got here,” Arya said, stepping aside to let him in.

“You’re gonna have to show me where his office is, m’lady,” Gendry responded, smiling fondly at her, despite himself. He had discovered over the last week that calling her m’lady was the easiest way to get her to blush.

“Stop calling me that,” Arya said hitting him lightly on the chest.

“As m’lady commands,” he responded, bowing slightly.

She rolled her eyes and turned on her heal and leading him down a hallway towards a part of the house he didn’t even know existed. She knocked lightly on a door at the end of the hallway and opened it, before turning back.

“Gendry, please come in,” Ned said, shutting his laptop. Gendry sat awkwardly in one of the comfortable chairs in front of the desk, quickly telling Ned what kind of Braavosi food he liked. Ned made a note on a list by the phone, but as Gendry started to get up, Ned said, “Actually before you go, I was wondering if I could have a word with you.”

Gendry felt his stomach drop. He thought he had done a decently good job at avoiding being weird or creepy around Arya all week. Sansa hadn’t said anything else. But Ned didn’t look mad, so Gendry nodded nervously and sat back down.

“So, Gendry. I don’t really know how to start, and I don’t wish to upset you or make you uncomfortable, so please tell me if I’m overstepping and I will drop the subject.” Gendry nodded, feeling more confused by the second, as Ned continued, “When I first met you last week, you may have noticed that I was a little shocked. The reason for that is that I’ve known your face my whole life. You look exactly like your father.” Ned paused, wondering if Gendry would want to stop. When he said nothing, Ned went on. “I have known him since I was a boy. He is one of my best friends. But I won’t make excuses for him. He knows you exist. I called him on Wednesday hoping he would plead ignorance. He did not. I have never felt so disappointed in him, and he is a pretty disappointing man to begin with.”

Gendry still had not said a word. Ned was pretty sure he hadn’t even blinked. 

“He has been wanting to meet you for some time now, but wasn’t sure if he would be welcome. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you would like to meet your father, it’s an option. There will be an opportunity at your graduation in May, as his son — that is to say, his other son — will be graduating from Oldtown as well.”

“I have a brother?” Gendry whispered.

“Well… yes. Two actually. And a sister. The oldest, the one that is your age is… creepy, to say the least. But the other two are wonderful kids.”

“What’s his name?” Gendry asked in a stronger voice. 

“Your father?” Ned sighed as Gendry nodded his head. “Robert Baratheon.”

Gendry let out of huff of air. He had wondered many times who his father was. He never would have guessed it would be the Prime Minister. 

“I don’t know if I would use the word ‘creepy’ to describe Joffrey. I’d probably go with ‘sociopath.’” Gendry said, leaning back in his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. It was a lot to process. 

Ned chuckled. He quite liked this friend of his sons. He seemed like a good man with a good head on his shoulders. He felt as if his blood would boil, thinking about Robert abandoning him.

“Yes, I suppose that is a little more accurate. Tommen and Myrcella are delightful though. I think Tommen has always had a bit of a thing for Arya, truth be told. It’s quite cute actually.”

Gendry felt angry for a second, thinking about that, before remembering that this was his little brother. He had a little bother. “When do I need to decide if I’m ready to meet him?”

“Well, the morning of your graduation would probably be fine. Just let me know either way and I’ll take care of the details.”

“Okay. Thank you Mr. Stark.”

“Please call me Ned. I should probably get dinner ordered. I think everyone is in the living room.”

Gendry left the room, walking slowly down the hallway, trying to begin processing the information he had just received. When he got to the living room, Jon and Robb both stood up quickly, looking anxious. 

“Everything is cool. I’m still digesting,” Gendry said, not wanting to talk about this in front of the whole family, even if they all knew. 

“Alright man. I hope you don’t mind that he talked to us about it. He was just looking for some insight into how you would feel about the situation.”

“Yeah no worries. At least I don’t have to figure out how to explain it to you guys.”

“What in seven hells are you all on about?” Arya said, looking annoyed at being left out. 

“None of your business, Arya. No one likes a gossip,” Robb said casually.

“Whatever, Robb. You’re the biggest gossip I’ve ever met,” Arya responded, but she didn’t push the subject anymore.

After dinner, Gendry, Robb, and Jon went out to the front porch and had a beer, discussing the new revelation. Arya came out after about half an hour and told Jon and Robb that they were needed inside to discuss rides to the airport the next morning with Sansa and their parents. They went inside, but Arya lingered by the front door, and when Gendry looked over at her and smiled, she closed the door and walked over, perching herself on the railing across from where he was seated. 

“It was fun having you around this week. It’s kinda nice, not having to think of you as my teacher,” she said, swinging her legs, 

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he said, getting lost in her eyes. After a minute of holding eye contact, he remembered everything Sansa had said to him the previous Sunday, and looked away. “But don’t get used to it. You gotta go back to calling me Mr. Waters on Monday. Even if you are my favorite student, we can’t let the others know that.”

Arya chuckled quietly. “So is everything cool? You seemed kind of out of it tonight.”

Gendry looked back at her, considering the situation. He decided he could trust her with this bit of information. Maybe she had some insight. “Apparently my father is Robert Baratheon. He wants to meet.”

Arya looked a little surprised, but then shook her head, “That sucks.”

“That bad?”

“Well, he’s not the worst person I’ve ever met. But he drinks a lot. And he’s kind of a weird old pervert? But he cares about his kids, and his wife. He’s a good politician. He’s just… of a different generation I guess. Mostly I was thinking it sucks that you’re related to Joffrey though.”

Gendry laughed loudly at that. “Yeah that guy is the worst. I’ve met him a couple times through Robb and Jon. Such a little prick.”

“Yeah. Myrcella and Tommen are really nice though. And Cersei is… kind of cold but she’s fine, as far as step-mothers go, I would think.”

“God this is all so weird. I had come to terms with never meeting him or knowing who he was, you know?” Gendry said, setting his empty beer bottle down and leaning forward, putting his elbows on his knees.

“Well… I don’t know, but I can kind of imagine? A little? I don’t know what to say, I’m sorry. But I’m here whenever you need to talk,” Arya said, trying to look sympathetic.

Gendry, already leaning forward, did not have to reach too far to grab her hand off of her knee. He held it for a second, rubbing his thumb over the back, before realizing it was the hand that he had kissed the week before. He turned her hand over in his and rubbed his thumb instead over the palm, where he had pressed his lips. He looked up at her to find her looking at him, and not smirking for once. In fact, her pupils were blown out, her mouth was hanging open slightly, and she looked a little bit like she was about to jump off the railing and onto him. 

Luckily, at that moment, the front door opened, announcing the return of Jon and Robb with another round of beers. Gendry quickly dropped Arya’s hand and leaned back into his chair when he heard the door. After Robb handed him his second beer and sat down, Gendry noticed Jon still standing by the door, looking between Gendry and Arya. 

Trying his best to sound casual, Gendry said, “Everything alright, Jon?”

Jon hesitated for another second, before walking to his seat and saying, “Yeah, I guess. Arya, aren’t you supposed to be working on a paper that you put off all week?”

“Fuck you Jon, don’t remind me of the stuff I don’t wanna do,” but she slid off the railing and went back into the house.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's some angst. It's also a little on the short side. Sorry.

A couple weeks later, Meera and Arya went out to lunch without Bran for once. He had a test after lunch and wanted to go over notes in the library. So when they arrived at the Sandwich Shoppe and got their usual sandwiches and table, they went straight to talking about things they couldn’t discuss in front of Bran. But after about ten minutes, Meera got kind of shifty and uncomfortable.

“Hey can I talk to you about something sort of awkward?”

“As long as it doesn’t involve my brother’s penis, yes. I’m sorry, you just have to find someone else for that,” Arya said, but Meera didn’t laugh like Arya would have expected.

“No. It’s actually about you. And Mr. Waters.” When Arya didn’t say anything, Meera went on, “Is there something going on between you two?”

“I mean he’s my brothers’ best friend but you knew that,” Arya said, avoiding eye contact.

“You know that’s not what I mean Arya. It’s subtle but it’s definitely there. He stares at you. All the time. Like constantly. And you're always staying after class to talk to him. And I know you don’t really know anything about flirting Arya, but it’s what you’re doing. Both of you. I just don’t want you to get into any trouble.”

Arya finally looked up, knowing Meera was just trying to look out for her. “It’s not what you think. I mean, yes. I like him. A lot. Like more than I’ve ever liked anyone. And I know it’s mutual. But I also know that he’s my teacher. I’m not trying to get him in trouble, I’m just hoping maybe I can pursue something once he is no longer our teacher. But he’s just going through some personal stuff right now that I know about because of my brothers and I’m just trying to be there for him because he doesn’t really have anyone else in town to talk to. But I promise, nothing has happened. He’s a good guy, Meera.”

“Well, that’s better news than I was expecting. Maybe talk to him about the staring if you can? Someone else is going to notice if he isn’t careful,” Meera said, looking relieved. “Okay so how do you know he likes you? Like you say nothing has happened but there have got to be some clues, you know what I mean?”

Arya told Meera about the couple offhand comments, and she explained everything that had happened over Spring Break, leaving out the bits about his father out of respect for his privacy. Meera, knowing Arya wasn’t crossing a line with a teacher, was more than happy to listen to her friend talk about her first ever real crush.   
*******  
Arya, as usual, lingered after class at the end of the day. Gendry had been teaching on his own and her main teacher wasn’t around, having ducked out about halfway through class. When everyone else had left the room, and Gendry was wiping the board clean, Arya stood up and went to close the door, wanting a little privacy. When the door clicked shut, Gendry looked over, smiling at her. 

“What can I do for you, m'lady?” He said with an impish grin. 

“I was just wondering how you’re holding up?” Arya said, rolling her eyes at the nickname he thought was so funny. She walked back over to her desk and sat on top of it. 

“Oh I’m alright,” Gendry said, mirroring her behavior and walking around his desk and leaning against the front of it. “I called my mum and talked to her about it this weekend. She was a little annoyed. He had no interest in being around when his presence could have been helpful but he wants to make amends now that there’s no responsibility involved. I get where she’s coming from. But I also am having a really hard time believing he could be so malicious. I mean he was probably just scared. Or embarrassed. I don’t know. And it’s not like he couldn’t have afforded to help out. I wanna believe the best in him I guess.”

“I get that. I mean, he’s not terrible, and I doubt he wasn’t around because he didn’t want to help. Knowing him, it probably just didn’t even occur to him to help out,” Arya said, feeling frustrated at her father’s friend. It was one thing to be a terrible person, but he wasn’t; he was just careless. Not a great trait for a father to have.

Gendry nodded, finding himself staring into Arya’s eyes as he always did when given the opportunity. 

“Also…” Arya drifted off, feeling a little uncomfortable. She broke off their eye contact and redirected her attention to fidgeting with the hem of her t-shirt. “Well, this is awkward, but Meera mentioned you staring a lot. Which I don’t really mind, but I don’t want you to get into any trouble,” she finished in a hurry.

Gendry cleared his throat and pushed off the desk, walking back around and settling himself in the chair behind it. Once he was seated, he pulled a stack of papers towards him. “Sorry about that. It won’t happen again, m’lady,” he said, before he began reading the paper on top. 

Arya tried to stop the angry tears from welling up in her eyes at the rather abrupt dismissal. It was the first time he had called her m’lady not as a sweet endearment, but rather to put some distance between them. She didn’t know what else to say, so she grabbed her bag and rushed out the door. She didn’t notice Gendry drop his head into his hands as the door swung shut behind her.  
*******  
Gendry spent a lot of time that evening thinking about what Arya had said. He figured when her brothers weren’t around anymore, he didn’t need to worry quite so much about letting his eyes drift towards Arya when given the opportunity. He didn’t think anyone would be paying that much attention. But he was wrong. And Arya basically admitted that she knew he had feelings for her. Which he kind of knew, he had too many slips for her not to at that point. But it was a whole other thing for the two of them to actually discuss the fact that there was something between them. He didn’t think that was a line they should cross. At least not right now.

He needed some distance. He had gotten too comfortable with her over Spring Break. It was nice having someone in town to talk to, but it was blurring the line that Sansa had been so insistent that he not cross. He knew that he was falling head over heals for her. He was positive that she was it for him. But Sansa was right. If he let things get too far at this point in time, he would fuck it up forever. 

As he settled into bed, he decided that he needed to go back to how he had been with her before she had shown up at the garage. She was his student, not his friend. He fell into a fitful sleep trying to think of the best way to go about it, and trying not to think about how miserable he would be without her company.

As it turned out, he needn’t have worried about putting some distance between them. Arya had taken his rather rude dismissal of her quite personally and avoided him for the rest of the week. And he avoided looking at her or engaging with her in any non-academic sense. They were at a stalemate. It was for the best, Gendry kept telling himself bitterly.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I pretty much finished this story last night, just have to play around with the last chapter a little and then I'm gonna write an epilogue, but I'm just gonna post a chapter a day until it's all up because you're all so nice and I know how much I love when that happens with a story I like. 
> 
> So here's chapter 7, a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanna mention that in my head, the drinking age in Westeros is 18. So Arya can legally drink.

By May, Arya had all but given up on Gendry. After their conversation in early April, he had been a brick wall. She was a little hurt by how easily he had shut her out, so she had no problem being a brick wall in return. When he left Winterfell after the first week of May, Arya was a little relieved to be done with their awkward interactions.

So when Arya went to Oldtown a week later for Jon and Robb’s graduation with the rest of her family, the last thing she expected was to find herself the night before, drunk, in Gendry's bedroom. Jon and Robb had decided to throw a party for their graduating friends, as their roommate that had rented Gendry’s room for the semester, a grad student named Sandor Clegane, was gone for the weekend. Jon and Robb had not wanted Arya to come but Sansa was smart enough to guilt them about the fact that they wouldn’t make it to Arya’s graduation and they had relented. 

When Arya arrived at the party with Sansa, she felt a little nervous about not knowing anyone there, apart from Sansa’s high school friends that she did not get along with, but she ran into Ned Dayne, a boy from Dorne that she had met on vacation when she was younger. He was a sophomore at Oldtown and had come to the party with some older friends. He was definitely trying to flirt with her, but Arya had learned how to shut him down a long time ago. She did, however, appreciate that he kept getting her refills when her cup was empty. 

Gendry found himself cornered by Jeyne Poole, a bottle blonde from Winterfell that Robb and Jon knew as she had been a close friend of Sansa’s. She usually tried to flirt with Gendry when they threw parties, and for once, he didn’t mind as it provided him with the opportunity to keep an eye on the preppy shit trying so desperately to get into Arya’s pants. He allowed her to prattle at him about how boring it had been while he was away, and he mostly tuned her out until she asked if he had taught Arya Horseface and if she was still such a brat. He processed the question slowly, due to his slight inebriation, and when he understood what she said, he frowned, looked down at her for the first time, and said, “Don’t call her that,” before walking away. She looked offended, and he didn’t care. 

It was a little before midnight, and Gendry went to the kitchen to get another beer. When he came back out of the kitchen, he noticed Arya weaving through the crowd and towards the bathroom, before noticing there was a line. He worked his way towards her and leaned down close, whispering in her ear, “There’s another bathroom in my old room, m’lady.” He grabbed her small hand and pulled her down the hallway, before opening the door. He released her hand and pointed to another door in the corner of the room. He watched her go into the bathroom, before he stepped into the room and shut the door. He went to sit on the bed and wondered what he was doing. He hadn’t been her teacher for all of a week, it would look pretty suspicious if he tried anything. But he was feeling reckless. And it was because he still hadn’t made a decision about meeting his father. The gravity of the situation came crashing down on him and he put his head in his hands.

Arya found him like that when she came out of the bathroom.

“Are you okay, Mr. Waters?”

“You don’t have to call me that anymore,” he said, not lifting his head. 

“Okay,” she said, and after a minute of him not responding, she said, “I’ll go get Jon,” unsure of what else to do. She walked toward the door and reached for the doorknob, before she felt Gendry’s hand wrap around her elbow. He pulled her around to face him and crashed his lips to hers. 

Arya only hesitated for a moment of surprise before wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and returning the kiss. When Gendry felt her tongue sweep across his bottom lip, he groaned and moved his hands down her sides and over her ass as he opened his mouth to allow her access. Arya jumped a little, allowing Gendry to lift her up and wrap her legs around his waist, pushing her back against the door, making their height difference a little more manageable. 

Arya didn’t have a lot of experience with this kind of thing. She had kissed a few guys, but it wasn’t anything like this. In the past, it had been experimentation, but ultimately, she had always lost interest. But as Gendry’s tongue wrapped around hers, she felt dizzy, and like no matter what, she would never get enough of him. She had to break for a breath after a few minutes, but Gendry just moved his lips to her neck, sucking and licking his way down to her collarbone and back. When he returned to her lips, he seemed to come to his senses a bit, sighing as he leaned away and lowered her back to the ground. He pressed one more chaste kiss to her lips, and then leaned his forehead against hers, moving his hands to either side of her neck.

“I probably should not have done that,” he whispered, though he couldn’t bring himself to feel too bad about it.

“Why not? It’s not like you’re my teacher anymore,” Arya responded, still slightly dazed.

“No. I somehow managed to keep myself from doing that long enough to not get kicked out of the education program. But for one thing, your brothers —“

“Do not control me, nor do I need their protection,” Arya stated defiantly, pushing him away slightly so she could look him in the eyes.

“No. But they are my best friends. I’m pretty sure there is something in the bro code about keeping your hands off of their little sister, especially when she’s been drinking. But there’s also the fact that I’m still dealing with this whole thing with my father. I can’t drag you into my shit right now, Arya.”

Gendry had almost forgotten for a few minutes the gravity of the decision that he still hadn’t made. He brought his hands up to rub his face as he went to sit back on the bed. Arya stayed by the door, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

“What if I don’t mind being dragged into your shit?”

“You deserve better, Arya. I don’t want to start something with you until we can be together properly, without my mind somewhere else half the time, and I can’t ask you to wait for me. You should just… Forget about me. You’re too good for me anyway. I'm just a bastard.”

“You know I don't care about that right?" Arya whispered, imploring him to believe her. "But no, you can’t ask me to wait for you. But I don’t see why we can’t at least be friends. I care about you, I want to be here for you while you’re going through this. You don’t have to be miserable just because you’re going through some hard shit right now, Gendry.”

The door to the room opened, and a very drunk Robb and a slightly less drunk Jon burst in. 

“Is he being a drag about his dad again?” Robb slurred as Jon closed the door. Distracted by Robb, neither Gendry or Arya noticed the way Jon assessed the room, noting that Arya and Gendry were a good five feet away from each other. 

“How very understanding of you, Robb,” Arya said dryly.

“Well, I know he wants to meet him. I know it’s hard right now but things will adjust and then you’ll have siblings! He’s so excited about the idea of that. I mean minus Joffrey.”

“Obviously,” Jon, Gendry, and Arya said in unison, and they all burst out laughing. 

“Okay! I think we need to lighten the mood. Flip cup?” Jon suggested, trying to seem chipper. They all filed out of the room, Gendry feeling better and resolved with the decision he had finally made.

As they set up the game, Sansa joined them, giving Arya a questioning look. Arya smiled and shrugged.

They all played flip cup for a while before Sansa announced that she and Arya would have to leave, as their designated driver was leaving.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya moves to Oldtown.

The last time Gendry had seen Arya that summer had been at dinner the night of graduation. It had been just his mother, Bronn, and the Starks. Arya had sat next to him, and when the conversation had inevitably turned towards the conversation he had with his father, Arya had reached under the table and squeezed his hand while he explained that they had only discussed that their relationship needed to start slowly, and agreed to communicate through email for a while. Arya had sent him a friend request on Facebook that night.

About halfway through June, after he had settled back into his house, although in a different room than he was before, as Sandor Clegane was keeping his old room, and back into his job at Tobho Mott's Garage, Gendry headed back to King’s Landing for a few days to visit his mum. He had ended up having lunch with Robert. While it was clear to him that his father had made some bad choices, he was still inclined to give him a chance. Robert was rough around the edges, without a doubt, but he was working hard to right his wrongs. Gendry couldn't see any harm in at least getting to know him a bit.

Gendry had dinner with the whole Baratheon family the following evening, and while Joffrey was a total prick, he did end up getting along quite well with Tommen and Myrcella. Cercei seemed uncomfortable, but she tried to be kind, though it was clearly against her instincts, and Gendry appreciated that. 

On Gendry’s last night in King’s Landing, his mother wanted to cook his favorite meal for dinner, and Bronn and him hovering in the kitchen trying to help had only annoyed her, so she had given them each a beer and kicked them out of the house and onto the back porch. They enjoyed their beers in companionable silence for a few minutes, looking out over the water.

“So you and that girl, Arry seem to get along pretty well. Do her brothers know you’re in love with her?”

Gendry choked on his beer a little. After regaining his composure, he said, “Her name is Arya. And yeah we get along. I don’t know if I’m in love with her.”

“Bullshit. Of course you are. I saw how you were looking at her.”

Gendry was quiet for a moment, sipping his beer. “She deserves better. She comes from this amazing family and she’s got an amazing future ahead of her. And I’m just a bastard grad student with a father I just met. My life is a mess.”

“More bullshit.” Gendry chuckled. Bronn had always been a crass man, and Gendry had always found it amusing. “A woman deserves a man who earns her. It doesn’t have anything to do with where you came from, Gendry. And you have an amazing future ahead of you as well. If you want to deserve her, work hard to make her happy every day. It’s what I do for your mother. It’s a lot more than rich fancy boys ever do, I can tell you that much.”

Gendry contemplated this in silence for a couple minutes. Bronn finished his beer and got up to go try to help with dinner again, but before he went back inside, Gendry said, “Hey Bronn? Thanks.”

“Anytime, kiddo. I can help you with cooking and with women. That’s about it.”

Gendry chuckled as the door closed behind his step-father.  
*********  
Gendry spent most of the first two weeks of classes that fall keeping an eye out for Arya around campus. He would tell himself that it was only because Jon and Robb had asked him to look out for her, but the truth was that he was fully in love with her, even if he wasn’t quite ready to admit it to himself yet.

Gendry and Arya had messaged each other constantly throughout the summer, discussing anything and everything. Unfortunately, when he went up to Winterfell for the summer solstice festival after he visited King’s Landing, Arya was up near the Wall camping with Meera and Bran. He supposed it was for the best, as he probably wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from kissing her in front of her entire family, had she been around for the fireworks. 

So by the time classes began two months later, Gendry was beyond ready to see Arya again, although he was still not entirely sure what to do about the situation. He knew that dating Arya was not exactly what his two best friends had in mind when they had asked him to look out for her. He also knew the Arya was young, a freshman in college, and probably wasn’t read to settle down with a 24-year-old graduate student. 

And yet, he couldn’t ignore the fact that he was happier than he had been in months when they finally crossed paths in the student union on the Thursday of the second week of classes. He was waiting in line for a coffee before he went to a discussion section for the class in which he was a GA when he spotted her walking on the other side of the hall. Their eyes met and he smiled at her meekly. To his surprise and delight, she immediately launched herself into his arms.

“It’s a good thing you’re so small or you would have toppled over the entire line, m’lady,” Gendry chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled his face into her neck, enjoying the way her hair smelled.

“I’m not that small, you know. You’re actually just a giant,” Arya replied indignantly as he set her back on the ground. “I was beginning to think I’d never see you. We haven’t talked…” she trailed off, looking down at her feet.

“Well, I knew you would have a lot going on, moving in, adjusting to everything, making new friends, you know… I wouldn’t want you to miss your college experience,” he said, moving forward with the coffee line. “But that being said, I’d love to hang out. Maybe I could show you around town this weekend? I’m out of class at noon tomorrow, and I’ll be at the garage Saturday morning, but I’m free the rest of the weekend.”

Arya looked up finally. “Why don’t you send me directions to the garage and I can meet you there?”

Gendry pulled out his phone and typed out a text with the directions, then realized he didn’t actually have her phone number, as they had only communicated through Facebook up to that point, but before he could say anything, Arya grabbed his phone, typed in the number, and hit send before handing the phone back. She smiled at him, then stood on her toes and gave him another hug. “I’ll see you on Saturday,” she said and then hurried off to wherever she had been going in the first place. Gendry could not stop smiling all the way through the discussion session.  
*************  
Arya woke up early on Saturday morning, before even the dining hall was open. She decided to go for a run, so she dressed in the dark and slipped quietly out of the room so as not to wake her roommate. The campus at Oldtown was beautiful, situated right along the water. Arya had seen joggers on the path by the harbor all the time, but apparently she was the only one awake at five on a Saturday morning.

She had been feeling tense since arriving at Oldtown, and she knew the exercise would help ease some of that tension. Meera was in a different dorm, as they decided rooming together might not be great for their friendship, and Arya’s roommate was nice enough, but she was part of a tight knit group of friends from Highgarden, so they hadn’t really developed any kind of a friendship. Meera and Arya had only seen each other at meals, they weren’t taking any classes together, and Arya had not managed to make any friends in her classes yet. All of that on top of not hearing from Gendry left Arya feeling quite lonely, which was not something she used to mind. It frustrated her, adding to the tension of new classes and moving. 

Arya knew Gendry felt uncomfortable about his feelings for her, but she had become quite attached to his company, even online, over the summer. Not hearing from him when she had arrived had been more hurtful than she would have guessed. He seemed keen to see her though, so she drew a little comfort from that. 

By the time the sun had risen properly, Arya was on the other side of the harbor from the University, in the area she guessed was downtown. She turned around to head back but had only run a few feet when she heard her name being called. She turned to see Ned Dayne walking towards her with a cup of coffee in his hand.

“Hey Ned,” Arya said warily.

“Hey Arya! How are things going?” Arya’s lack of enthusiasm did not seem to have any effect on Ned’s attitude, he was quite cheerful.

“Pretty decent. I’m enjoying my classes so far. That seems like a good sign.”

“Definitely! What are you taking?”

“Intro to Lit, Westerosi History, Intro to High Valyrian, Linguistics I, and Intermediate Braavossi.”

“Let me know if you need any help in Westerosi History. I aced that class last semester.”

“Okay. It doesn’t seem like it’s that difficult of a class, and I have a good friend who is a history grad student so I’ll probably just go to him if I do need any help, but I’ll keep that in mind,” Arya explained awkwardly, hoping Ned might finally get the hint after shutting him down on a regular basis for the last five years.

“Oh your brothers old roommate? The mechanic?”

“Yeah. Gendry.”

“Yeah I guess he would probably be more helpful. I didn’t realize he got into grad school.” Arya decided to ignore that comment that was obviously somewhere near an insult. “Anyway, my roommates and I are having a party tonight. You should come!” Ned seemed to be trying to steer the subject away from Gendry.

“Um… Maybe. I think I might have plans. I’m hanging out with a friend this afternoon and we didn’t really set a time frame, we might just hang out through the evening.”

“I’ll text you the details in case you change your mind.” Ned responded. Nothing discouraged this guy.

“Okay. I’m gonna head back but I’ll see you around,” Arya said while turning away, hoping he wouldn’t try to continue the awkward conversation any longer. 

“Alright, see you tonight!” Ned responded, waving at Arya’s turned back.  
************  
Gendry finished rinsing off after his morning shift at the garage and walked outside to find Arya sitting on the hood of his car with her eyes closed and her head thrown back, enjoying the warmth of the southern sun. Her hair was damp and she was wearing a plain knee length grey dress that was not obviously meant to be very sexy, but it hugged her figure in all the right ways, and Gendry stopped for a second, enjoying having the freedom to ogle her a little. He was attracted to much more than Arya’s physical appearance, but he had spent so much of the time they had known each other trying to avoid appreciating how beautiful she was, and it was nice to be able to do that now that he wasn’t her teacher (and her brothers weren’t around). 

“Hey stupid. What are you staring at?” Arya said as she opened her eyes and slid off the car, but she was smiling.

“Oh just the person who has the balls to sit on a mechanic’s car. You’re lucky you didn’t dent the hood,” Gendry said, pretending to inspect for any scratches in the paint.

“Whatever. You always make fun of how small I am, we both know I wouldn’t dent it unless I wanted to,” Arya said with a mischievous smile. “So where to?”

“Well, I figured the fish market for lunch and then we can walk around downtown, I’ll show you all the best spots. I’m guessing you have campus pretty well figured out by now?”

“You guess right. Lead the way!”

They were only a few blocks from the fish market and they arrived to find the usual bustle of a Saturday midday. They settled on a little stall close to the harbor wall for lunch and each got a calamari sandwich and a beer, then sat on the wall as they enjoyed their lunch. Arya seemed to enjoy watching the ships come and go from the harbor. 

“So how are your classes going so far?” Gendry asked after they had finished eating.

“Fine. I’ve got three intro level classes so those are gonna be a piece of cake. I feel like I’m way ahead of everyone in my Intermediate Braavossi class though. I suppose no one else enjoys their reality shows quite as much as I do.”

“Braavossi reality shows? Arya, I thought you were above petty drama,” Gendry said, pretending to be shocked.

“Being above petty drama in real life doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy watching other people be complete disasters. It’s delightful. Almost as good as Dornish shows. The Dornish are crazy.”

Gendry threw his head back and laughed at that. “My step-dad always says that. He had an ex who was Dornish and she stabbed him. Twice. I’ve never understood how she ended up with a second opportunity.”

Arya laughed, and said while wiping tears of mirth out of her eyes, “Yeah he definitely seems like a guy who has been through some shit.”

They talked more about their families and school as they finished their lunch and began to walk back through the fish market. The downtown area was just a block in from the market, and Gendry and Arya passed a couple hours exploring the busy streets, Gendry pointing out good restaurants, pubs, and stores. 

By late afternoon, Arya was feeling confident that they were done with the weird limbo they had been stuck in since May. But as Gendry pulled up to campus to drop Arya back off at her dormitory, she suggested they rent a movie and grab some dinner and hang out at his place. Gendry visibly tensed at this suggestion.

“Maybe that isn’t such a good idea. I’m still working through stuff with my dad. And Robb and Jon…”

“Goddammit Gendry! I’ve tried to be patient and supportive, but you clearly need some real talk. You’re never going to be done ‘working through’ things with Robert. He’s a part of your life now! Things are never going to go back to the way they were before, and it’s not an excuse not to live your life. As for Jon and Robb, whatever! We’ll figure it out! They’ll deal!”

Gendry pulled up in front of the dorm as Arya finished her little speech, and she got out of the car and stormed into the building before Gendry could respond.


	9. Chapter 9

At 11:30 that night, Gendry was laying on his couch wondering how he would get Arya to speak to him ever again when his phone started ringing. He didn’t recognize the number, but considering the time, he thought it might be important, so he answered.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Sansa. I’m glad you’re awake, as it’s your mess that needs cleaning up. Arya is drunk and clearly upset about something you did. Her texts aren’t making a lot of sense. I’m worried. I’m sending you the address of the party she’s at. Text me when she’s safe.”

And with that, she hung up the phone. A few seconds later, his phone beeped with the address, so he put on some shoes and grabbed his keys before heading out the front door. 

When he arrived at the house, he was surprised the party hadn’t been busted already. There were people outside yelling and singing, there was trash everywhere, and there was a distinct thumping of music coming from inside. These amateurs clearly had no idea how to throw a party.

When he finally found Arya, it was on a couch with the same preppy blonde shit that had been all over her at the graduation party in May, and he was pressing a drink into her hands. 

“I told you tonight would be fun, Arya! I'm so glad you came!” He said, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

“Yeah, Ned, it's been a great time. Thanks for inviting me," Arya said without much enthusiasm as she tried to push the kid away from her. They were both clearly drunk.

“So are you going to stay with me tonight?" Arya laughed and shook her head, still trying to pull out of his grasp. "Come on Arya, I promise it will be fun," he said leaning his face down towards hers.

"I don't think she's interested, mate," Gendry said, his voice shaking with anger. He looked down at Arya, whose eyes were wide, and he reached for her hand, which she grasped and pulled her to her feet. She immediately lost her footing and fell against him, so he picked her up and carried her out of the party.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have had so much to drink.”

Hearing how sad she sounded began to cool down Gendry’s boiling blood. “No, you shouldn’t have. But it's a party. It happens. Are you okay?”

Arya nodded her head before he set her down next to his car to dig the keys out of his pocket. Once they were settled in his car, he pulled out his phone to let Sansa know that he had successfully retrieved Arya from the party. He put his phone down and started the car, looking over at Arya, to find her sound asleep in the passenger seat. He realized there was no way he would be getting her back to her dorm. So he put the car in gear and headed back to his place right as he saw flashing red and blue lights approaching the doomed party.

As Gendry drove, he finally began to accept the depth of his feelings for Arya. He was in love with her. As he realized this, he also realized that it was a first. He had not loved his girlfriend from high school, though he had known for years that relationship had been built on hormones and teenage lust. But he had really thought he loved Jeyne Heddle. They had dated his third year at Oldtown. Jeyne was good and kind, and they had remained friends for a time after their breakup. Maybe he had loved her, but it was never like this. He had never been in love with her. 

But with Arya, it was completely different. She was so alive. And being around her made Gendry feel so alive. She wore her heart on her sleeve. When she asked him questions, she genuinely cared what the answer was. She wanted to see the whole world, learning languages along the way, and he wanted to be at her side for it all. She was smart. She made him laugh all the time. And like a cherry on top, she was the most beautiful woman Gendry had ever laid eyes on. They would need to figure out her brothers, but the thought of a couple tense conversations compared to the risk of losing her, as he thought he might have that afternoon, didn’t seem like such an insurmountable challenge anymore.  
************  
Arya woke up early the next morning feeling groggy and extremely thirsty. She opened her eyes and was momentarily confused before the details of the night before started to come back. She vaguely remembered Gendry putting her to bed and saying he would be on the couch if she needed anything. She rolled over to face the bedside table and was grateful to find a large glass of water next to a couple ibuprofen. She drank the water quickly but skipped the medicine as her head mostly just felt tired.

She stumbled out to the kitchen with the empty glass and bumped into a large bearded man with auburn hair and friendly eyes. “Whoa, little lady! You must be the reason poor Gendry is trying to fit on the couch. I’m Grenn, a roommate,” the man said, holding out a hand for her to shake.

Arya vaguely remembered the name as someone in Jon’s undergraduate Geology program as she held out her hand. He must have been who took the third room when Jon and Robb moved out. 

“Arya Stark. Water?”

Grenn’s face lit up with amusement as he took her glass and grabbed a filtered pitcher of water off the counter. “Ahhh the infamous little sister. Too much fun last night?”

“Fun isn’t the word I’d use,” Arya answered, taking the full glass back from him. “Remind me not to drink with people I don’t trust again.”

Grenn looked sad in an understanding way. “Hey, we’ve all been there. It’s a lesson you’ve got to learn on your own. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Gendry found me before things got too out of hand.”

“He seems to care about you. He talks about you a lot.”

Arya nodded her head and sipped her water, wondering if this guy she just met had noticed, if her brothers maybe had started to notice too. Maybe it would be easier to get them comfortable with the idea of her and Gendry being together than Gendry was anticipating.

“Well, I’m library bound. I have a tutoring session in an hour with a busty undergrad and I still need coffee, or I’m gonna end up staring at her boobs the whole time. It was nice meeting you, Arya,” Grenn said as he grabbed his backpack from the counter. Arya chuckled at his shameless perviness.

“You too. Hey um… Could you maybe —“

“Not mention your shenanigans to you brothers? You got it, kiddo,” he said with a wink and a smile as he slipped out the front door.

Arya refilled her water once more and headed into the living room to find Gendry overflowing on the couch. She realized that she needed to give him a break. Up to this point they had spent the entire time they’ve known each other repressing their feelings. What they needed was to have an honest conversation about how they felt and how to proceed from here.

She figured she could worry about that conversation after a couple more hours of sleep at least. So she curled up in an armchair and turned on cartoons quietly. She dozed on and off as Gendry continued to sleep.  
*************  
Gendry woke up to the faint sounds of Spongebob and found Arya asleep on the chair next to him. He sat up and gently shook her awake. 

“Hungry?” He asked, his voice still hoarse with sleep.

“Starving,” she said, smiling sleepily at him.

Gendry got up and headed for the kitchen, hearing Arya following close behind. He started a pot of water boiling and grabbed sausage and eggs from the fridge. Arya perched herself on the counter and watched him cook.

“Hey, so… um, I’m sorry about last night. And thank you. How did you find me?” Arya said in barely above a whisper.

“Sansa called. And there’s no need to apologize. I’m just glad I got there when I did. I upset you yesterday. It’s… What I meant to say —“

“Hey we don’t have to do this right now. You can just feed me and take me back to the dorms if you want.”

“I want to do this right now. I know I have the right words and I don’t want to forget them.” When Arya didn’t say anything, he continued, “We both know that a lot of things about… Us, I guess… well it’s complicated. There are a lot of obstacles that we’re facing right off the bat. I just want us to take things slowly so we can address them properly. But I’m crazy about you. You know that, right? I want to do this, but I want to make sure we do it right.”

Arya was silent for a moment, but she was smiling. Finally, she said, “Okay, yeah that makes sense. So where do we go from here?”

“A date? Like a real one? That seems like a good place to start, make sure we actually can do this before we get everyone’s panties in a bunch about it?”

“A date would be good,” Arya said, smiling widely at that point, and Gendry knew he was smiling back with just as much enthusiasm. Gendry handed her a mug of black tea, knowing her distaste for coffee as he prepared a pot of pressed coffee for himself. “I have some homework to get done today but maybe sometime this week?” 

“How’s Wednesday?” He asked while he dished up two plates of eggs and sausage. 

“Wednesday is perfect,” Arya said as the front door burst open, announcing the return of Grenn. 

“What’s cooking?” He asked, walking into the kitchen, stealing a sausage off Gendry’s plate and beginning to whistle. 

“This is Arya. You’re in a good mood,” Gendry said, chuckling.

“Oh, we’re old friends, Arya and I. And of course I am, I’m in love.”

“With a person this time, or just her tits again?”

“Would you believe me if I said both?”

“No. Just be honest about your intentions please? If you’re going to live here, no more repeats of what happened in July. I think Clegane will rip your head off if he comes home to another girl crying by the front door.”

“Hey I’m always honest,” Grenn said, holding his hands up. “I just didn’t realize Shae was never really listening until it was too late. And besides, this one really is different. For starters, none of my usual charms seem to be working and she’s… I don’t know. I think I really do like her. She reminds me of someone.”

“Wait, are you talking about the girl you were just tutoring? That’s ethical,” Arya cut in.

“Oh, please. Weren’t you her high school teacher four months ago?” Grenn said, gesturing between Gendry and Arya.

“Point taken,” Arya said, blushing slightly.

“Anyway I should get you home. You’ve got homework and I have grading to work on. I’ll see you in a bit, man,” Gendry said, clapping Grenn on the shoulder and going to his room. Arya quickly shoveled down the rest of her breakfast before Gendry returned with his keys and her shoes. 

They rode in companionable silence back to the dorms with the windows down and the radio playing softly. About halfway there, Gendry worked up the nerve to grab her hand. She smiled at him before weaving their fingers together and returning her attention to the view of the harbor out her window.

When they pulled into the loop in front of her dorm, Gendry cut the engine and turned to face her in his seat, not releasing her hand. “I’m sorry again for acting like such a jackass yesterday. And kind of the whole time we’ve known each other. I’m going to do better from here on out, I promise.”

“You don’t need to apologize. I’m sorry you had to rescue me last night. I don’t usually lose control like that.”

“If I don’t need to apologize, neither do you,” he responded, smiling warmly at her. “I can’t wait for Wednesday. It seems ages away.”

“Hey we’ve made it this far. What’s another three days?” Arya said with a blush and a smile. “Good luck with your grading.”

“And you, with your homework.” Arya turned to get out of the car, but Gendry tugged on her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to the back. In some ways it mirrored that fateful night back in March, and in other ways, it was entirely different. It wasn’t a shameful secret that he would beat himself up about in the weeks to come. It wasn’t a hurried impulse in the dark of the night, not something he could or would pretend to forget. It was casual, and slow, and full of love.

Gendry returned home to find Grenn and their third roommate, Sandor Clegane watching football in the living room. Clegane was in interesting guy, surly and intense, but not unkind. Half of his face was covered in deep burn scars with his long dark hair usually combed to obscure the worst of the damage. He didn’t ever talk about what happened, and the few close friends he had knew better than to ask. They also knew better than to get too close to him with fire. He was getting his masters in wildlife ecology, as he often claimed that even a rabid wolf was better than most people.

Gendry sat in the chair that Arya had been occupying and caught a faint whiff of whatever her shampoo was. It reminded him of the North, although maybe that was because all the time he had spent in the North, he had been entirely focused on her. They all watched the game for a while.

“So are Jon and Robb aware that you’re in love with their little sister?” Grenn asked between halves. 

Sandor let out a loud bark of laughter. “How could they not be? I haven’t even met the girl and I know.”

“Well, they’re not, so if you guys could keep this to yourselves while we figure out the logistics, I would appreciate it,” Gendry responded, flushing with anxiety at the thought.

“You got it, man. But the longer you wait, the worse it will be. Just… keep that in mind,” Grenn said.

“Yeah, I know,” Gendry said, rubbing his face before changing the subject. “So what, you think you found ‘the one’ with this new girl?”

“Is she a crier?” Sandor said loudly, sitting up and looking alarmed. 

“I don’t know. But I can tell you that she’s nothing like Shae so you don’t need to worry about a repeat. She’s kind of standoffish though, and I’m having a hard time getting a read on her. Great rack though,” Grenn said wistfully.

“Yeah, you mentioned that a few times,” Gendry said, rolling his eyes at his friend’s one track mind. “You said it wasn’t just that this time though.”

“I mean she’s super smart. Well, she’s terrible at Geology, obviously, as has a tutor two weeks into class. But she’s a psych major. She doesn’t seem to have much patience for hard science. And she’s nice and quite funny, but the second I try to flirt at all she just kind of shuts down and changes the subject. Which is annoying, because I feel like I know her from somewhere? But I can’t figure out where, because she’s not really opening up.”

“Does she have a boyfriend?”

“Maybe. I don’t know how to find out though.”

“He’s just intrigued by the mystery. He’ll lose interest in a week,” Clegane grunted out as the game came back on.  
***********  
Arya finished her homework and had a nice dinner with Meera. As she was settling down with a book and a cup of tea later that evening, her phone rang. Looking at it, she saw that Sansa was calling. She knew she must have been worried the night before and answered with a meek, “Hey, sister.”

“Hey Ar. How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“Did you make it home okay last night?”

“Well… I passed out in the car when Gendry picked me up, so he put me in his bed and he slept on the couch.”

Sansa didn’t say anything for a minute.

“Sans?”

“You really scared me last night Arya. I know you’re out of the house and it’s fun to party, but I need you to be more careful. I don’t want to lecture you but I don’t feel like I have much of a choice,” Sansa said, very seriously.

“I know. I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again I promise. Gendry and I got into a fight yesterday afternoon and I overreacted. Ned Dayne was having a party and I know Gendry doesn’t like him and I wanted to make him jealous. Which was childish and stupid, and I’m really sorry.”

Sansa was quiet for a minute. She finally said, “You’re forgiven as long as you don’t do it again. You mentioned a fight last night. What happened?”

“He was just being cautious about us getting into something romantic, and I was feeling impatient and I just went off on him a bit. We had a good talk this morning though.”

“And…?”

“And we have a date on Wednesday night.”

“What are you gonna do? What are you gonna wear? Oh my god Ar, it’s your first real date!” Sansa was back to her bubbly self.

“I don’t know yet, but we’ll FaceTime while I get ready, how does that sound?” Arya said with a laugh.

“Perfect. I’m gonna brainstorm and I’ll text you outfit ideas,” Sansa said with as much excitement as Arya was feeling.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Date night! Part 1. Sorry guys. I'll post part 2 later tonight.

Wednesday arrived and with it came rain. There was a hurricane rolling in about fifty miles down the coast. Oldtown was only expecting rain though, so they had not been told to evacuate, only to avoid the harbor in case of minor flooding. Because of this, Gendry decided they should keep driving to a minimum and make Arya dinner at his place. Clegane and Grenn both had work to get done and agreed to avoid the house for the evening. 

Gendry picked Arya up at the dorms at 6. He had brought an umbrella but Arya had never been patient, and before he could even get out of the car, she had pulled up the hood of her raincoat and sprinted from the dorm vestibule to his car.

“Hi!” She panted as she settled in the passenger seat. “This rain is crazy!” 

“I’ve seen worse,” Gendry responded, smiling at her damp and disheveled appearance, her cheeks slightly pink from her short run to the car. “Hurricanes happen down South. But in an effort to avoid going outside too much, I thought our best bet would be if I made us dinner at my place and then maybe we can watch a movie? Sorry I know it’s kind of lame, I promise to do better when the weather allows it.”

“That sounds perfect! Going out in public is overrated most of the time anyway.”

They both sprinted inside when they arrived at the house, holding hands and laughing, the umbrella lying forgotten in the back seat. As soon as the door was closed, they stripped off their raincoats and hung them up to dry. Arya was wearing black skinny jeans, Mary janes, and a loose fitting blue scoop necked t-shirt. Gendry took a second to appreciate how good the simple outfit looked on her before grabbing her hand and leading her to the kitchen.

“So I decided on homemade pizza, because it’s my specialty. Hope that’s okay?” Gendry asked after Arya had taken her spot on the counter to watch him work.

“Gendry, please never ask me again if pizza is okay. The answer will always be yes,” Arya replied, rubbing her hands together excitedly.

“I’ll keep that in mind, m’lady,” Gendry said with a laugh.

The dough had been rising already and Arya watched as Gendry began kneading and shaping it. She gasped in delight when he tossed the disk into the air to spread the dough like they do in the movies. 

“Bronn owns a pizzaria. It’s one of the things he taught me,” Gendry explained.

“Are you close to him?” Arya asked.

“Kind of. We get along, but we don’t have much in common besides my mum. We like cooking for her together though. He taught me some tricks,” Gendry said, fitting the dough to a pizza stone.

“That’s a relief because I hate cooking,” Arya said with a smile. “I like watching you cook though.”

Gendry grinned and said, “Glad you’re enjoying the view. Now let’s talk toppings. Regular pizza sauce okay?”

“Yes. And cheese!”

“Of course. Pepperoni? Feta?”

“Mmmmm yes to both.”

Gendry finished topping the pizza and put it in the oven. “Would you like a beer?” He said, opening the fridge. 

“Sure.”

Gendry passed her a beer and settled against the counter opposite the one she was sitting on, opening his own. They talked about classes for twenty minutes until the timer went off for the pizza. 

“Why don’t you go pick out a movie while I finish up out here?” Gendry said.

Arya slid off the counter and headed into the living room, where she turned on Netflix. She had just settled on an old dark comedy about a hitman when Gendry handed her a plate with two slices of pizza on it and settled on the couch next to her. They both ate quickly and went back for seconds. The pizza was gone in under fifteen minutes. They sipped their beers and watched the movie, and about an hour in, Gendry grabbed the remote and paused.

“I’m going to go clean up dinner,” he said, standing up and stacking their plates. Arya got up and followed him into the kitchen. “You don’t have to help.”

“I want to. You cooked. Drying dishes is the least I can do to thank you,” Arya said, taking the plates out of his hands and loading them into the dishwasher. 

It was a fairly quick cleanup process. Gendry put away the pizza stone after Arya had dried it, then turned to the fridge and got them each another beer. Arya took hers with a smile and led the way back to the living room, sitting down in her same spot, right in the middle of the couch. Gendry sat down next to her again, this time close enough that their legs were pressed together, and he threw an arm casually around her shoulders and leaned back as Arya hit play on the movie. She smiled up at him before laying her head lightly against his shoulder.

Then the power went out.

With the TV off and the hum of electricity gone, they could hear the wind howling and the rain hammering against the windows. Gendry pulled out his phone and checked the local news. The hurricane had turned north and was now going to pass much closer to Oldtown than was expected. They were now expecting a large storm surge and high winds. The power would be out for at least a day, and people were being advised not to go outside until further notice if they could avoid it. 

As Gendry was communicating this information to Arya, his phone buzzed with a new text.

Jon Snow: Hey could you check on Arya tomorrow? Don’t put yourself in any danger, but she doesn't like storms and I want to make sure she’s doing okay.

Gendry looked up at Arya in the dark and saw that her eyes were wide with fear. He put his arms around her and pulled her close. 

“Hey It’s okay. If we were in any danger, they would be telling us to evacuate. This happens down South. There will be flash flooding and we’ll just stay inside and avoid it. You can have my bed again, we won’t risk taking you home tonight. It’s going to be alright, I promise. 

Just as he felt her begin to relax in his arms, a clap of thunder and a flash of lightening caused her to jump, and in an effort to distract her, he pulled away just enough to be able to press his lips to hers. 

Unlike the first time they kissed, it was slow and sweet. They weren’t drunk, and there was no frenzy. After a few seconds, the shock wore off and Arya melted into the kiss, molding her mouth to Gendry’s and parting her lips when she felt his tongue press against them. 

They broke apart after a few minutes, both panting slightly and grinning. 

“I need to text Jon back. He’s worried about you,” Gendry said with a chuckle.

“What are you going to say?”

Gendry typed out a few sentences before handing the phone to Arya for approval.

Gendry Waters: Actually she’s over here for pizza and movies. She was pretty freaked out when the power went out, but I got her calmed down. She can sleep in my room tonight and I’ll take her back to the dorms when the rain eases up.

Arya hit send and handed the phone back to Gendry. He set it on the coffee table and said, “Now where were we?” As he pressed a giggling Arya back onto the couch, cutting her giggles off with a kiss.

Neither of them noticed his phone light up with another question from Jon.

Jon Snow: … Where are you going to sleep?  
***************  
“Well, my roommate has a lady over and I promised I wouldn’t come home until after 10. I suppose we should grab a drink and kill a couple hours, don’t you think?” Grenn was always a confident guy, and up to this point, it had served him well.

Jeyne smiled at him as she was packing up her backpack, her long blonde hair falling in front of her face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, swinging her bag over her shoulder and walking out of the study room they had been working in. Grenn, not so easily deterred, followed her. 

“Come on. I know you think I’m charming. And there’s no rules again tutors dating the people they tutor.”

“Spoken from experience? I’m not really into players, thanks.”

As they turned out of the stacks and into the lobby of the library, the power went out, causing both of them to stop walking.

“Shit,” Grenn said after a moment. “I’m going to have to crash Gendry’s date.”

“I’m sure they’ll understand. Do you think the buses will keep running?” Jeyne said, sounding anxious.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I can give you a ride home,” Grenn replied. She searched his face, or at least what she could see of it in the emergency lights. “Come on, it’s a hurricane. I’m not going to let you wait at a dark bus stop in the rain for a bus that may never come.”

After contemplating him for another moment, she said, “Thank you. Yes, I would appreciate a ride.”

As soon as they walked out the front doors of the library, the wind and rain was whipping them around, so Grenn grabbed Jeyne’s hand and ran for his car.

“Sorry for that, I just didn’t want us to get separated,” he said once they were safely inside the car.

“No, it was a good call. No apology needed,” Jeyne replied, panting slightly. “I live at 12th and Wall.”

“Oh great! That’s only a few blocks away from me,” Grenn said as he put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking spot. 

They drove in silence for a couple minutes, Jeyne looking out the window. The drive took longer than usual, as Grenn was driving slowly and going a long route in order to avoid low spots by the harbor that were prone to flooding. 

“I know hurricanes suck, but I have to admit, I like the rain. It reminds me of home.”

“Where are you from?” Grenn asked, trying to sound casual, though he was inwardly excited that she seemed to be opening up a little. 

“The Vale. I haven’t been back in years though.”

“Why not?”

Jeyne hesitated, looking over at Grenn, but he kept his face impassive, and she answered, “Family stuff. My mum passed away when I was 14 and my father and I don’t really get on. I left when I graduated and haven’t been back since. But home is home, you know?”

“No, not really,” Grenn said, this time trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “I grew up in a string of foster families. A couple good ones here and there, but there was never really a home. There was a place in the Vale though. I wasn’t there long, just for a summer, but I loved it there.” Grenn trailed off, getting lost in old memories of the nice farm he had lived on, and the girl on the neighboring farm, Violet, that he had fallen in love with. He tried not to think about her too much. They had met in secret in some disused stables almost every night. Until her father found out at least. That was when Grenn had been sent away, as the farmer he lived with didn’t want to start a feud with his neighbor over an orphan that he could just get rid of.

“I’m sorry you never had a home,” Jeyne said quietly, looking at him curiously. As Grenn looked back at her, it finally clicked after all these weeks that it was Violet that she reminded him of. Her quiet strength, even the way she looked, he saw in Jeyne.

“Don’t be,” Grenn said with a cocky smile, looking back at the road and pushing the painful memories back down. “I turned out alright, even if I am… what was your word? Oh yes. A ‘player.’”

They pulled up in front of a small house a few minutes later. “Text me when you’re home safe, please,” Jeyne said as she grabbed her bag. 

“I knew you were starting to like me,” Grenn responded as she opened the car door. She rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly before running for the front door.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all ready for some smut? 
> 
> Okay I got stuck at work, I'm sorry this is so late. I hope you all enjoy it.

Arya had ended up straddled across Gendry’s lap, kissing him lazily. His hands were both gripping her tightly by the bottom, pulling slightly as she slowly rocked up and down in his lap, both of them enjoying the gentle friction through their clothes. Arya whined as Gendry broke away from her kiss and released his left hand. She got over the loss of his mouth on hers quickly as he brought his free hand up to grab her chin and turn her head so that he could have access to her neck. He kissed, sucked, and nibbled his way down her neck, pausing at the spot where her neck and shoulder met, where he sucked hard, drawing a low moan from Arya. He then moved lower, licking across the exposed swell of her breast.

While Arya’s mind was a haze of pleasure and Gendry, his mind was clear and focussed. He had been imagining this for so long that he wanted to remember every second, every detail. If it turned out to be a dream, maybe it would keep him going for a while. If it was real, he wanted to make sure he knew every spot that made her gasp, moan, or squirm. Since coming to terms with being in love with her, Gendry was determined not to risk losing her again.

Gendry released the hand holding her chin and brought it up her back under her loose shirt, tracing his fingers along the top of her bra before gently grasping her breast. He released quickly though, and stopped kissing her chest so he could look up and find her eyes. She was looking down at him under her drooping eyelids, her mouth hanging open slightly. He hooked his index finger around the top of the cup and pulled it down so that her breast spilled out. 

Arya held her breath as Gendry broke the intense eye contact, slowly lowering his mouth back down to her chest, this time latching his lips around her nipple, massaging it through her now damp shirt with his tongue. He brought his hand back around to her upper back so that he could hold her chest to his mouth, while the hand that remained on her ass gripped tighter, as she began to rock in earnest against his now full erection. Gendry was beginning to lose control, moving his hips to meet hers and bringing his teeth around her nipple, biting down hard, eliciting a loud moan from Arya just as the front door opened.

They both froze, listening. After a second, they heard the door close and Grenn’s voice from the front hall say, “I’m sorry for crashing. Let me know when it’s safe to come in.”

Gendry quickly fixed Arya’s bra and said, “It’s cool. You can come in,” as Arya slid off his lap and onto the couch next to him, leaving her legs tangled with his.

Gendry was torn between throwing Arya over his shoulder and taking her to his room to finish what they had started, and staying on the couch and cooling down. They had, after all, agreed to take things slowly, and this was their first date. He didn’t want to rush her. So he sat still, trying to calm down while he heard Grenn rummaging in the front closet for a moment before he came around the corner with a lantern, looking timid.

“I’m sorry I know I said I’d stay out for a couple more hours. But with the power out all over town, there was nowhere else I could go…” Grenn trailed off. It was obvious he had interrupted something, and while Gendry did not appear to be angry, Arya looked as if she would like to strangle him.

“Don’t worry about it, obviously you didn’t have a choice. I’m not going to risk taking Arya back to the dorms though, are you cool with me sleeping on the couch again?”

“You don’t have to sleep on the couch,” Arya muttered.

Grenn smiled as he looked between the two of them. They made a cute couple. “Well, it’s only just past eight. I think I’ll have a beer. Either of you want one?”

“I’m still working on mine,” Arya said as Gendry shook his head.

Grenn disappeared into the kitchen along with the light. Gendry turned his body towards Arya and pushed her hair back so he could nuzzle just below her ear. “I’m sorry. I got a little carried away,” he whispered, before pulling back and placing a soft kiss on her lips. Just then, the front door opened again announcing the return of Clegane. 

“Sorry for crashing your date, Gendry. But the animals are all hunkered down for the storm and I wanted to get back before the flooding started.”

Grenn answered him from the kitchen, “We’re both crashers, Hound. You want a beer?”

“Definitely.”

Sandor Clegane came around the corner and sat down in one of the armchairs at the same time that Grenn returned from the kitchen, handing him a beer, setting the lantern on the coffee table, and sitting down in the other armchair.

Gendry leaned forward and grabbed his and Arya’s beers, settling back as a loud roll of thunder tore through. Arya tensed slightly, and Gendry tightened the arm that was around her shoulders. He turned to Grenn and said, “How’s Jeyne?”

“Oh my gods please tell me not Jeyne Poole?” Arya demanded, scowling.

Grenn laughed at that and said, “Oh no. Definitely not. I couldn’t distract her from your boyfriend here even if I wanted to.” This just made Arya scowl more. “Jeyne Marks is the undergrad I told you about the other day. She’s good. She actually opened up a little tonight, told me a little about her childhood…” Grenn trailed off, clearly lost in thought.

There was a few minutes of silence during which they all sipped their beers and listened to the storm. 

“So when are you two going to tell Jon and Robb? You know I’m not good with secrets,” Clegane burst out. He was never a subtle guy.

Gendry sputtered over a sip of his beer while Arya snapped, “We’ll tell them when it’s time for them to know. It shouldn’t be terribly difficult for you to just not bring it up in the meantime.”

Sandor looked at Arya for a full minute, sizing her up, apparently reassessing his initial judgement. “You’re a little scary, did you know that?” He finally responded.

“Yup,” Arya responded, still glaring at him. 

“Fair enough.”

Arya glared for another minute, before softening and asking, “What animals are hunkered down?”

“The elk herd on the wildlife reserve north of the city. My thesis is about mating habits and child rearing in the deer family.”

“Riveting,” Arya said with a sarcastic drawl. “To each their own I suppose. You wouldn’t want to listen to me talk about the linguistic patterns in Braavossi that derived from High Valyrian.”

“I sure the fuck would not.”

Grenn and Gendry were both observing this interaction silently, and burst out laughing at Clegane’s final response. They all sat around talking for another hour until their beers were empty and it was reasonably late enough to call it a night. Grenn took all the beer bottles to recycling in the kitchen and Gendry went back to the front closet to dig out another flashlight. He came back with two and dropped one in Clegane’s lap before walking over to where Arya still sat and holding his hand out. She stood up and slid her small hand into his waiting one. He led the way back to his room, closing the door quietly once they were both inside. He dropped her hand quickly and went over to the dresser in the corner.

“Do you want pants or shorts to sleep in?” He asked as he dug out his softest shirt for her.

“Just a shirt is fine. I hate sleeping in pants,” Arya said, taking the shirt from him. He led her into the bathroom and dug out a pack of new toothbrushes, handing her one. 

“I’ll give you some privacy,” Gendry said, leaving the flashlight and closing the bathroom door behind him as he went back into the bedroom. He sat on the bed and checked his phone, noticing a text from Jon. He tried really hard not to panic at Jon’s obvious suspicion, and he typed a quick and hopefully casual answer explaining his plans to sleep on the couch. Next he checked campus alerts to confirm there would be no classes the next day. He was just turning his phone off to conserve the battery when Arya came out of the bathroom, his shirt falling halfway down her bare thighs. He quickly averted his gaze, grabbing his sleep pants from the foot of the bed and going into the bathroom.

Gendry changed quickly and brushed his teeth before splashing some cold water on his face, trying to remember why they had agreed to take things slow. He went back out into the bedroom to find Arya sitting on the edge of the bed where he had been. She looked up when she heard the door, her eyes falling on his exposed chest before traveling down to where his sleep pants hung low on his hips. He tossed his dirty clothes into the hamper and walked slowly over to where Arya sat, placing his hands on either side of her face. He bent down and captured her lips, kissing her deeply. He broke away after a minute, resting his forehead against hers. 

“I’ll be on the couch if you need me,” he said quietly.

“You don’t have to. I trust you Gendry,” Arya said quietly, grabbing his wrists as if to hold him there. 

“Well, I told Jon that’s where I’d be…” he said, part teasing, part very seriously.

“Stop talking about Jon,” Arya said, pulling his face back to hers and kissing him hard. When she broke off the kiss, a loud peel of thunder shook the house. “Please Gendry,” she whispered.

He sighed, knowing he shouldn’t give in, but wanting nothing more than to crawl into bed with her every night for the rest of his life. He pulled out of her grip, turned off the flashlight, and pulled the covers back. Arya climbed under and he followed. They lay down facing each other silently for a few minutes, hands entwined. Gendry was the one to break the silence.

“I never thought I’d see you afraid of anything. Why storms?”

Arya contemplated her answer for a minute. “I can fight or avoid most dangers in this world, but not storms. They tear through and all you can do is hope they won’t destroy everything. They make me feel powerless.” She was lost in thought for a few minutes. At last, she said, “What are you afraid of?”

“Hmmm… I’m kind of afraid of the wall? It’s just so big it kind of freaks me out. I’m afraid of birds. The ones in King’s Landing are insane, and if you have food, they will attack you, given the opportunity. Lately, I’m mostly just afraid of losing you. I’m in love with you, Arya.”

He hadn’t meant to say it. That’s not something you say on a first date when you’re trying to take things slow. Just as he was about to start explaining, Arya kissed him fiercely, pulling his body closer to her. He got so lost in the passion of her kiss that he barely registered how she ended up straddled across his lap again, his hands gripping her exposed thighs as his rapidly hardening cock pressed against her warm center. She finally broke off the kiss, their eyes meeting in the dark.

“I’m in love with you too, Gendry,” she panted, and he completely lost control as his heart soared. He surged up to recapture her lips before flipping her easily onto her back and grinding his hips against hers. His left hand gripped her hip as his right arm held him up to keep his large body from crushing her small one. It was only when he felt her hand pull at the waistband of his pants that he came to his senses. He broke off the kiss and moved his left hand to stop hers. 

“We have to stop,” he groaned.

“Why?” She snapped and Gendry realized that she was probably always going to get her way. 

“We’re supposed to be taking things slow.”

“Gendry, we’re way past that. We’ve been taking things slow for eight months. We’re in love. Who cares?”

“Have you ever done this before?” He asked, knowing the answer.

She was quiet for a couple seconds, then broke eye contact, looking down at his chest, and she whispered, “I want you.”

Gendry sighed, releasing her hand, and whispered back, “You’re all I want Arya,” as her hand slipped into his pants and found its way around his throbbing erection. She gasped at his size, and though her hand didn’t fit all the way around him, he let out a loud moan.

“Stop.”

“But —“

“No, I just… I’m gonna finish before we even get started if you don’t stop.”

“Oh,” He could hear the blush in her voice. He leaned back onto his knees, pulling her up with him. He tugged on the hem of his shirt, pulling it up over her head when she lifted her arms. She didn’t draw her arms around to cover herself like some girls would, and Gendry appreciated the view as a flash of lightening lit up the room. Arya didn’t even seem to notice the thunder that followed. He brought a hand up and gently cupped one of her breasts, rubbing his thumb over the nipple, marveling at how perfectly it fit in his hand. It was like they were made for each other. 

His hand dropped to her hips as she lay back on the bed and he hooked his fingers around the sides of her panties, dragging them down her legs when she lifted her hips. He leaned forward on one arm to kiss her while his other hand gently stroked the soft skin of her thighs, working its way towards her center. When his fingers found their way into the soft curls of hair and then between her soaking folds, Arya gasped into his mouth at the contact. 

Gendry took the broken kiss as an opportunity to begin peppering kisses down her neck and then torso, settling when his shoulders were between her thighs. He looked up at her face, pleased to find her looking down at him as he used his thumbs to spread her open, holding eye contact as he licked her slit from the bottom to the top. Her head fell back on the pillow as she let out a loud, shuddering moan. 

He continued his ministrations, focussing his mouth on sucking and licking the small nub above her opening, eventually sliding a finger inside her. He was worried about how tight she was, but her walls clenched, pulling his finger in, rather than fighting the intrusion. He added a second finger, getting the same reaction, and began to pump the two fingers in and out, curving them up to hit the spot that made her hips buck against his face as he continued to focus his mouth on her clit. 

It wasn’t long before she came undone, gushing her pleasure all over his hand and face. When she was finished, he sat back and dragged his forearm across his mouth before leaning up to capture her mouth in a searing kiss. He stopped quickly though, and Arya felt another rush of pleasure as he sucked her wetness off of the two fingers that had been inside of her. He then kissed her again, pressing his tongue into her mouth, and she tasted herself on him.

“Are you sure you want to keep going?” he whispered, pressing his forehead to hers, though he looked like he might die if she said no.

“Yes,” she whispered back. She had never felt so sure of anything in her life. She grabbed the waistband of his pants and this time, he didn’t stop her from pushing them over his hips and down his legs, where he took over kicking them off. She wrapped her hand again around his cock, trying to see between their bodies, but it was too dark. So she hooked a foot around his leg, flipping him onto his back. She settled on his knees, experimentally stroking him a few times before whispering, “Do you have a condom?”

She felt him shift as he turned toward the bedside table, opened a drawer, and rummaged for a moment. When he found the little package, he closed the drawer and sat back. He gently ripped open the package and rolled the condom on. Arya shimmied up, on her knees, and positioned him at her entrance as she heard Gendry whisper, “Wait.” She looked up and he grabbed her neck, pulling her to him so he could crush their lips together, breaking off quickly. “It’s going to hurt,” he panted, his face etched with worry. 

“I’ll live,” she said, sitting back up and repositioning her body over him. Every thought left Gendry’s head as Arya slowly began to sink onto him. His head fell back onto the pillow and he clenched his eyes shut, letting out a loud moan, and gripping her hips so tight he was sure he would leave bruises. When she was about halfway, she paused. Gendry opened his eyes to look at her, worried it would be too much, but she screwed up her face with concentration, and sank the rest of the way down in one swift motion. It took him by surprise and his hips jerked involuntarily, trying to get him impossibly deeper. Her eyes were closed and she grimaced at his movement.

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” He asked, his voice strained.

“Yeah, I just need a minute,” she said, her eyes still clenched shut. After a minute, she opened her eyes and gently traced the lines of his abdomen with her fingertips before planting both palms on his stomach and looking up so her eyes met his. She began to rise and fall just as more lightening lit up the room. Gendry thought it might be the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, though his moan was drowned out by a clap of thunder. 

Arya was having a hard time getting into a rhythm. She let out a grunt of frustration and Gendry came to his senses enough to realize that she needed a little help. He adjusted his grip on her hips and began thrusting up to meet her halfway. This caused her to begin bouncing up and down steadily, and Gendry released one hand so he could grasp one of her breasts, massaging it roughly before pinching the nipple. She was panting as his thrusts became more insistent, and he realized he needed to slow down if he was gonna get her to climax again before he did. He stilled his hips and rolled them back over, kissing her sloppily as he began to thrust slow and deep. He snaked a hand between them and massaged her clit with his thumb. After a minute, he stopped kissing her mouth and focused instead on her neck, licking, sucking, and biting every inch of her he could reach with his mouth. 

When he felt her beginning to tense up, he picked up the pace of his thrusts. She began to moan and he was completely overwhelmed with her, all around him, panting and he gasped out her name as they both fell over the edge. Her whole body stiffened as Gendry felt her walls spasm around him. He emptied himself into the condom with one more hard thrust and a loud groan.

Shaking, Gendry held the edge of the condom and gently withdrew himself. He removed it, tied it, and threw it in the bin in the corner before laying down beside Arya. He propped himself up on one elbow with his other arm draped over her waist. 

“Are you okay?” He whispered. He knew he had probably gotten a little more enthusiastic than was wise on her first time, and he was a little worried he had hurt her more than was strictly necessary.

She rolled onto her side so they were facing each other again. “Has anyone ever told you that you worry too much? I’m fine. Great, in fact,” she said, smiling softly and tracing a pattern on his chest. 

“I love you,” he said, kissing her forehead tenderly.

“I love you too,” she replied. She rolled over and got up a moment later, letting herself back into the bathroom. As the door snapped shut, Gendry heard a soft tapping on his bedroom door.

“Gendry?” Grenn’s voice came through the door. Gendry rolled out of bed, located his pants, and went to the door, opening it a couple inches.

“What?” He grunted, trying and failing not to be rude.

“I’m sorry man, it’s just…” Grenn held up his phone so Gendry could see a text on the screen.

Jon Snow: Hey are you awake?

Grenn: Yeah what’s up?

Jon Snow: This is awkward, but is Gendry on the couch? He said he would be since Arya was gonna stay over because of the storm.

Jon Snow: I’ve just had this feeling for a few months that something is going on with them.

Jon Snow: She’s my baby sister.

“Fuck,” Gendry whispered. He heard the bathroom door open behind him. 

“Gendry?” Arya whispered, noticing him at the door.

“It’s Grenn. Come here, we’ve got a problem.”

It took a minute for Arya to find the shirt she had been wearing. She pulled it on and went to the door, which Gendry opened wider now that she was less naked. Grenn handed her the phone and she scanned the messages quickly.

“Oh for fucks sake,” she said, and began typing out a reply.

Grenn: Well it sounds like they’re still awake and talking so no. She’s pretty freaked out and the storm is getting worse. I didn’t really get the idea she wanted to be alone.

Gendry read the message and then looked at Arya skeptically. “Are you sure? We could just send him a picture of me on the couch.”

“Gendry, how much worse do you think this will be if we get caught actively lying to them? This is an opportunity to start easing him into the idea. He doesn’t have to know —“

“— about the loud and very enthusiastic sex on your first date?” Grenn interjected.

“— everything.” Arya finished, ignoring Grenn but blushing slightly. Gendry still looked unconvinced, so Arya brought a hand up to cup his cheek, stepping close. “You worry too much.”

Gendry slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer, so their bodies were flush, and said, “Send whatever you’re comfortable with, dude,” as he used his free hand to close the door in Grenn’s face.

Grenn smiled and went back to his own room. He lied down in his bed and looked at the unsent message that Arya had typed. He hit send, and after another moment of thought, he added another message.

Grenn: Would it be so bad if there was something going on? From what I’ve seen, they get on well. And you know Gendry is a good guy. Just… keep that in mind.

He exited out of the message and put his phone on airplane mode to conserve battery while the power was out. He rolled onto his side facing the window, listening to the rain and thinking of the way Jeyne had looked at him in the car.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I.... feel like I should just warn you all that this is real smutty. I might be a pervert ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ idk. I mean I rated it "explicit" so hopefully you're all here for that, but I just felt like I should warn you.
> 
> Also some other stuff happens. At least read the beginning and the last 6 paragraphs for plot.

Over the next month, Gendry and Arya were rarely apart during their free time. They had decided it was best to avoid public outings until they had told Jon and Robb, as there were still plenty of people around who might mention it to one of them. Their dates were mainly at Gendry’s house. They had tried going to a movie and acting like they were just friends, but after about forty-five minutes sitting in the dark and having to keep their hands to themselves, Arya place her hand on Gendry’s knee, and he had snapped. He dragged her out of the theater and they fucked in the back seat of his car in a dark corner of the parking lot. Neither one of them could remember anything about the movie.

So they stuck to Gendry’s house after that. Fridays were the best, as they were both done with class by noon and Grenn and Clegane were never back before seven. On the Friday in mid-October, the day before Arya’s birthday, she arrived a little later than usual, because she had to swing by her dormitory to grab her rain gear, as there was supposed to be another storm over the weekend. 

Sansa had decided a week before that her, Jon, and Robb were all going to come to Oldtown on Saturday to help Arya celebrate. Arya suspected it was mainly to give her and Gendry a chance to tell Jon and Robb. They talked about it and agreed that it was time. She knew Gendry was anxious but she also knew that they had not done anything wrong. 

When she arrived at the house, she heard Gendry in the kitchen and music playing softly. She deposited her bag in his room and went back to the kitchen to find him making grilled cheese sandwiches. He didn’t say anything, but he gave her a soft smile, before turning back to the stove. 

She walked up behind him and wound her arms around his waist, placing a soft kiss between his shoulder blades. “Hey,” she said softly.

He didn’t say anything, but he grabbed her hand and pulled it to his mouth, kissing the palm. She could feel the tension in his body, his anxiety about telling her brothers. 

“So I was thinking about what I want for my birthday,” Arya said, as she had told Gendry that she didn’t need a present from him. When he didn’t say anything, she went on, “I want us to enjoy tonight and not think too much about tomorrow. Can we just turn our phones off and pretend we’re the only two people in the world for a few hours?”

Gendry turned around at last, smiling. “That sounds wonderful,” he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and switching it off and Arya did the same. He then leaned down to capture her lips, getting carried away as he always did when they were touching. He ended up lifting her onto the counter, and his hand was making its way up her shirt to unclasp her bra when he smelled their sandwiches burning.

“Shit,” he said, turning back to the stove and turning it off.

Arya laughed at him and said, “I don’t mind if it’s a little burned.” They weren’t too bad, just blackened around the edges. They ate right where he had left her on the counter, with him leaning between her legs. When they were done and he kissed her again, he tasted like butter and cheese and Gendry. He made quick work of her shirt and bra, and she tugged his shirt off right after. But when she placed her arms around his shoulders, she could feel the tension was still there.

She pushed him away and hopped off the counter, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the couch in the living room, pushing him down. She kneeled between his legs and unfastened his pants. He helped her tug them down along with his boxer briefs. Arya wrapped her hands around his semi-hard manhood, stroking it a few times, before making eye contact as she lowered her mouth, sticking her tongue out to flick across the tip before wrapping her lips around him and taking him into her mouth, working the base with her hands. 

“Fuck,” he groaned, reaching for her so he could hold her hair out of the way. He tightened his grip and pulled. She moaned around him, sending vibrations through his cock. 

It wasn’t long before Gendry was approaching his release. He had never let her finish him off this way, but she wanted to treat him. As his hips began to buck into her mouth and he panted for her to stop, she brought one hand down to gently squeeze his balls and took him as deep as she could, swallowing around his tip, and he let out a long groan, gripping her hair tightly and holding her to him as she felt ropes of hot cum on the back of her throat. She swallowed as she withdrew him from her mouth with a loud pop. She looked back up at him, smiling as she climbed onto his lap. 

“I told you to stop. You didn’t have to…” Gendry trailed off, tracing her breasts with his fingers. 

“Are you mad?” Arya said with a cocky grin.

Gendry snorted at the question. “Of course not. But it’s supposed to be your birthday we’re celebrating. I shouldn’t be coming before you.”

“You’ll make it up to me, I’m sure,” Arya sighed as he nuzzled the spot under her ear that always made her feel like her skin was on fire. He snaked his hand down the front of her leggings and slipped his middle finger between her folds, pleased to find her already decently wet. She moaned quietly at the contact but pulled away quickly to stand up and tug the rest of her clothes off. Gendry got an idea and turned so he could lay flat on his back on the couch. 

As Arya returned to straddle his hips, Gendry grabbed her knees and pulled. She scooted up, looking unsure, until she had her knees under his shoulders and her wetness was right over his face. He held her ass tight as his tongue slipped inside of her. She moaned loudly and collapsed forward, bracing her hands on the arm of the couch above his head. He removed his tongue and traced her folds gently, slowly, teasing her. It was nice but it wasn’t what she wanted. When his tongue missed her clit for the third time, she whined his name.

“Yes, m’lady?” He mumbled against her. 

“I want…” she trailed off as his lips brushed her clit.

“Tell me what you want.”

“Please. I wanna come,” she panted.

At that, he latched his lips around her clit and began sucking and flicking with his tongue. Soon, she was grinding against his face and chanting his name. He felt himself beginning to harden again and released one hand from her ass and began to stroke himself, just as she came apart on his face. He wriggled his head out from under her as she caught her breath, still holding onto the armrest. He moved behind her, pushing one of her knees off the couch so her legs were farther apart and she was half standing, half kneeling. He pressed his hardness against her ass, pulling her hips toward him. They hadn’t fucked like this yet, and he hesitated.

“This okay?” Gendry asked.

“Yes,” Arya said, pushing back against him.

He lined himself up with her entrance and pushed in slowly, enjoying how much deeper her could get from this angle. Arya seemed to enjoy it too, dropping from her hands to her elbows with a moan. He set an achingly slow pace. After a few minutes, Arya was pushing back to meet every thrust, and demanding harder, faster, more. Gendry began to snap his hips hard against her, relishing in the sound of their flesh meeting. He knew what she needed but he wasn’t willing to compromise his leverage by releasing one of his hands from her hips, so he growled, “Touch yourself.” She moved one of her hands down between her legs, massaging her clit. After a few minutes, Gendry could feel her approaching another orgasm. He leaned forward, dragging his tongue up her spine and panting, “Come for me,” when he reached her ear. 

Arya came so hard that she blacked out for a moment, screaming something close to Gendry’s name. When she came back to herself, he was holding her around the middle with one arm as she felt his cock twitching inside her. He pulled out and she felt a trickle of their mixing juices run down the inside of her thigh. She allowed him to pull her back as he lied on the couch, settling in the crook of his arm. 

They lay still for a while, catching their breath. Eventually, they decided to take a shower, enjoying the intimacy of washing each other. Arya was pleased to find him more relaxed after their activities. She dressed again in an old pair of Gendry’s boxers that he hadn’t used since switching to boxer briefs, and a tight tank top. Gendry put on a t-shirt and his sleep pants.

It was only just past four, so they decided to watch “Princess Bride” and snuggle on the couch. Arya dozed off towards the middle, and Gendry picked up their discarded clothing, throwing it all in the hamper in his room. He came back out and gently shook Arya awake because he knew she wouldn’t want to miss the end. Gendry turned off the TV when the credits rolled. Arya climbed into his lap, as she often did because it was the easiest way to mitigate their large height difference. 

“So do you wanna go over the plan?” She asked.

“No,” he sighed, bringing a hand up to rub his eyes. “We both know what we need to say. We just have to hope they don’t kill me.”

Arya could feel him tensing up again, so she pulled his hand away from his eyes and said firmly, “They won’t kill you. What is the actual worst thing that could happen? They get mad? It won’t stop us from being together, and they’ll get over it,” Arya waited a second but he remained quiet so she went on, “I love you and you love me. That’s all that matters, yeah?”

He began to relax again. “You’re right. You’re always right,” he said before capturing her lips. They kissed slowly, not with the same fervor of the kisses that always ended up leading to sex. These kisses were gentle and loving, not leading anywhere, although Gendry still gripped her ass with one hand, keeping their bodies close as his other hand gently traced her torso, as if to simply memorize her.

They heard the front door after about twenty minutes, Gendry feeling annoyed at whomever had come home early, disturbing the peace of their afternoon. But Arya kept kissing him, apparently deciding to ignore the interruption, so Gendry followed suit, at least for a couple more seconds, until he heard two loud thumps and a woman’s voice saying, “Shit.” 

Gendry opened his eyes and saw Robb, Jon, and Sansa standing at the entrance to the living room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no!!!!!! 
> 
> Sorry guys, had to end on a cliffhanger. Will post the next chapter or two tomorrow night after the finale. I'm sure we'll all need it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god how great was that finale?!?!?!?! 
> 
> Jk I'm six beers and an edible deep, cuz I'm sad, and I process my feelings best when I'm a little fucked up. So this chapter's final edit probably isn't gonna be quite as thorough as usual. But it's still gonna make you feel better than that episode did.
> 
> In other words, I'm Jon in this chapter.
> 
> Enjoy.

Sansa looked annoyed, Robb looked shocked, and Jon had a hard look on his face that Gendry couldn’t read. Both Jon and Robb had dropped their suitcases. Gendry quickly released the hand that was gripping Arya’s ass. 

Arya craned her neck around and saw her three older siblings. “You’re not supposed to be here until tomorrow,” she snapped.

“Yes, Arya, but there’s a storm coming and I didn’t want to risk cancelled flights, so I changed them to this afternoon. I’ve been trying to contact both of you for hours,” Sansa said, clearly exasperated. 

“Oh. We turned our phones off,” Arya said, sliding off Gendry’s lap and sitting next to him, taking his hand as he leaned forward in an attempt to conceal the bulge in his pants.

Robb’s shock had faded and been replaced with anger, and he began pacing in front of the TV, silently fuming for a couple minutes. “So how long ago did you seduce our baby sister?” He demanded when he finally seemed to decide on a method of attack. “Did you at least wait until you were done being her teacher?”

“Robb, I —“ 

“I will have you know that I’m the one who did the seducing,” Arya said fiercely. “About a month ago. You know he’s a good guy Robb, how could you accuse him of such a thing?”

“How could I? How about because he drunkenly told us he was into some high school girl over Spring Break? And now we find him fooling around with our 18-year-old sister, how could I not?”

“We’re not ‘fooling around’ Robb. We’re in love!” Gendry cut in, jumping to his feet. “You think I would risk our friendship for anything less than the love of my life?” Arya stood up with him, not letting go of his hand.

Robb had stopped pacing and was looking at Gendry with narrowed eyes. “The love of your life, huh? When did you decide this?”

“The day we met,” Gendry said without hesitation. Arya was taken by surprise at this and looked up at Gendry as he continued, “I knew I was a goner by the end of our first conversation.” His eyes found Arya’s and she cupped his cheek, standing on her toes and placing a kiss on his lips. 

“Hey, hey, hey, enough of that!” Robb yelled. “If you knew that long ago, why should we believe this has only been going on for a month?”

“It’s true,” Sansa piped up. 

“You knew?” Robb said, turning on her.

“Of course I knew, I have eyes in my head. It was so obvious how into each other they were over Spring Break, and I talk to my sister. She’s an adult and her having a love life doesn’t upset me. I won’t apologize, Robb. Arya has confided in me at every step of their relationship, and I can confirm that it really only started a month ago. They wanted to tell you in person. Here we are.”

Robb was bright red and seemed inclined to keep yelling. But he didn't seem to know where to start and so he just started pacing again, sputtering intermittently.

Jon still had not said a word. Gendry looked at him, imploring him to understand. He finally said, “The night of the last hurricane?” Gendry felt his neck flush at the memory of that night, but he held eye contact and nodded. Jon sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Grenn said something that night, about you being a good guy and would it really be so bad, ya know? Since then I’ve been trying to think of someone who could deserve Arya. I have been wracking my brain, trying to think of the best guy I’ve ever met, the most trustworthy, someone who could understand Arya’s quirks and love them. And I just kept coming back to you. If anyone could deserve her… Well, I trust you with my life, Gendry. I’ll have to learn to trust you with Arya.” Jon walked towards them and grasped Gendry’s free hand. “If you ever hurt her, I’ll smash your knees in with a crowbar.” Gendry nodded, smiling slightly as Jon turned to Arya and pulled her into a hug. “I love you, Arya. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”

“I love you too, Jon,” she said, laughing a little in shock at his reaction. He turned and walked into the kitchen, where they heard a beer opening.

Robb stopped pacing and looked as if he was thinking very hard, trying to find a flaw in Jon’s logic. “Dammit he’s right. You two are perfect for each other.” Then he walked towards them and pulled them both into a bone-crushing hug. He pulled away, saying, “I’m sorry for flipping out. I was shocked.”

“I was expecting much worse, to be honest,” Gendry said, smiling wide and laughing slightly in sheer disbelief. “And that was without you walking in on us… I mean not that we were doing anything we were just…” Gendry was starting to ramble.

“Quit while you’re ahead dude,” Robb said, shaking his head as Grenn burst in the front door and into the living room.

He took a second to take in the scene, noticing Gendry and Arya holding hands, Robb standing in front of them, and Jon leaning against the entryway to the kitchen, basically chugging a beer. “How bad was it?”

Gendry shrugged and smiled.

“You knew?” Robb said, looking annoyed as he realized he was the last to know.

“Of course I knew, she sleeps here almost every night, and they’re not exactly quiet,” Grenn said, demonstrating his usual lack of a filter.

“Dude!” Gendry said, as Robb looked like he was about to start yelling again and Jon finished his beer.

“And you’ve been covering for them even though you and I have been friends longer,” Jon said as he smashed the empty beer can between his hands. It wasn’t a question.

“Well, yeah. They’re adorable. Who am I to burst the bubble of new love?”

Jon rolled his eyes. “Grenn, the romantic,” he said, as he turned back to the kitchen. “Anyone else need a beer?”

“Gods yes,” Robb said, following Jon into the kitchen. Grenn followed as well. 

Arya released Gendry’s hand and went to pull Sansa into a hug. The two sisters laughed and Gendry went to pick up the discarded suitcases and move them into the corner of the living room, as the three Stark siblings would be sleeping there for the weekend. Jon’s suitcase was very large for a two night trip, but Gendry remembered that he had planned to pick up air mattresses from their house in Winterfell on his way to the airport. Arya and Sansa sat down on the couch, chatting animatedly. Gendry went into the kitchen, where he found Jon, Robb, and Grenn all sitting around the table drinking beers. He slid into the last empty chair at the table and listened as Grenn filled them in on his ongoing pursuit of Jeyne, the under-grad. Jon talked about how he had met a woman who lived beyond the wall named Ygritte and they were getting to know each other. They heard the front door open again and a minute later, Clegane walked into the kitchen, not looking nearly as grumpy as usual, but rather extremely anxious. 

“Do you know? Do they know?” He asked, looking from Jon to Robb to Gendry. Gendry nodded, and Clegane let out a heavy sigh. “I swear you two have taken five years off my life in the last month. I hate secrets.”

“I wouldn’t have minded if you had wanted to call and tell me,” Robb said, and he still seemed annoyed that he was the last person to know. 

“No offense Robb, but I’m much more scared of that little sister of yours than I am of you,” Clegane answered as he opened the fridge. “Where is all the beer?”

“Oh my bad, dude. I just walked in on my little sister on top of my best friend so I just kind of helped myself. Gendry’s sober, we can send him on a beer run. Maybe pick up some dinner too,” Jon slurred as he polished off his third beer. 

Clegane looked at Jon, mildly amused. “I need to go to the store anyway. I got it.”

“Someone is going to the store?” Sansa said, leaning into the kitchen. “Can I tag along? I want to pick up groceries for the weekend, we don’t wanna clean out your kitchen.”

Clegane looked at Sansa with an expression of mild surprise, then said, “Sure,” as he looked away, pulling his long hair over the side of his face in an unusually self-conscious gesture. Arya walked into the kitchen and sat down in Gendry’s lap, putting her arms around his neck as his went automatically around her waist. Robb grimaced and but Jon, surprisingly, smiled fondly at them. Sandor grabbed his keys off the counter and walked back into the living room where Sansa was pulling on her shoes. She grabbed her raincoat and purse, and motioned for him to lead the way.

They were halfway to the store before either of them said anything. “I’m Sansa by the way,” she said, looking over at him. 

“Sandor Clegane. Everyone calls me Clegane,” he grunted, aware that she was looking at him and annoyed that she was facing the scarred side of his face. He didn’t usually get flustered around women. Mostly he ignored them, because they ignored him. But she was looking straight at him, straight at his scars, and she didn’t seem repulsed. He didn’t quite know what to make of it.

“Clegane,” she said, as if seeing how the name felt. “I think I like Sandor better. Is that okay?”

He chuckled a little, glancing over at her, and she was smiling at him. “You can call me whatever you like,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store. He found a spot close to the front, as it was supposed to start raining at any time. 

The store was quiet, that’s what he liked about doing his grocery shopping on Friday nights. Most other people were getting ready for a big weekend, and it was an ideal time to run errands. The liquor store might be a different situation, but he could be in and out of there quick, since he knew what he needed. Sansa grabbed a cart and led the way through the produce, grabbing what she needed from a list she apparently had in her head. He grabbed a couple things, holding them, as he followed her through the store.

“You can put your stuff in the cart. Just keep it at the front, all my stuff is at the back,” she said, motioning towards the cart. He placed his items where she told him to, then continued to follow her, stuffing his hands in his pockets except when he needed to grab something. After about twenty minutes Sansa turned to him, smiling again, and asked if he had everything. He nodded and followed her to the front, where she picked an open register and began placing his items on the conveyor belt before hers. 

“You can go first,” he said, slightly uncomfortable with the frightened look the cashier was giving him. 

“Well, I can’t leave without you so there would be no point in that,” she said as she continued to her own stuff. He helped her unload the cart as the cashier began ringing up his items. He paid quickly and then moved to the end of the lane. He gathered all their bags as Sansa paid. She noticed he had them all and ran slightly to catch up with him, as he was in a hurry to get away from the cashier. He knew he looked scary but that didn’t make it any easier when strangers were needlessly frightened of him. 

He put the groceries in the trunk of his car as Sansa let herself into the passenger seat. He got in the driver seat and drove another half mile to the big liquor store. He was a little surprised when Sansa got out and followed him into the store, but he didn’t say anything. He grabbed a case of lager and watched Sansa wearily as she picked out a couple bottles of wine and a six-pack of some fancy craft beer from Astapor. She smiled at him and looked to the front of the store to indicate she had everything she needed, and he followed her to the counter. 

“I’ll get the beer too, Sandor. I’m guessing my brothers are going to drink most of it anyway,” she said, turning to face him as she pulled her wallet out of her purse again. He raised his one eyebrow at her, and she rolled her eyes, grabbing the beer out of his hand and placing it on the counter with the rest.

“ID please,” the cashier said, and Sansa handed him the small card to verify her age. He checked it quickly, then turned to Sandor, who looked annoyed but reached for his wallet. “You’re good man, I remember you,” the cashier said as he began scanning the items. Sansa paid the man and reached for the bag, but Sandor had once again grabbed everything and was halfway to the door before she realized it.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Sansa said once they were in the car and driving back to the house.

He laughed darkly and said, “It’s kind of hard to develop good people skills when you’re as ugly as I am.”

She was quiet for a second and he felt nervous that he shouldn’t have said that, but when he glanced over at her, she was looking at him curiously. “I don’t think you’re ugly. And I’m an artist, I have a good eye.”

“If you say so,” he said, looking back at the road. He pulled up in front of the house a couple minutes later and they managed to get everything on the first trip into the house. They walked in to find everyone had moved to the living room, and they went to the kitchen. Clegane began putting his groceries away and Sansa took hers to the counter and began sorting, pulling out the items she needed to make dinner. Jon walked in and grabbed three more beers for him, Robb, and Grenn, then went back out to the living room. Sandor made himself a sandwich and grabbed a beer, watching as Sansa started looking through cabinets. 

“Can I help you find something?”

“Yes, I need a big skillet. I'm going to just cook up some hamburger for tacos, I’m too tired to do anything else tonight,” she said, smiling at him again. He leaned down and pulled a large skillet out of a cabinet next to the stove, and watched her as she started browning the meat and poured herself a glass of wine. He finished his sandwich and grabbed the tomatoes she had set on the counter and began to dice one, then shredded some lettuce into a bowl, leaving all of it next to the salsa, tortillas, and cheese she had left out. She turned around from the stove and saw what he had done just as he was walking out of the kitchen. She heard a door close at the end of the hall. 

She walked back out into the living room. “Where did Sandor go?” She asked, a little confused by the large and standoffish man.

“Uh…” Grenn said, looking at her with an eyebrow raised. “He probably went to bed. He has to be at the wildlife reserve by dawn on Saturdays.”

“Oh,” she said, trying not to sound disappointed. She had been enjoying his quiet, brooding company. “Well, tacos are ready, you can all help yourselves,” she said, turning back to the kitchen and fixing herself a plate first.

After dinner, Sansa settled against the wall under the window with her sketchpad, pleased when Arya sat next to Gendry on the couch and he slung an arm lazily over her shoulders as she leaned back against him. She had been wanting to draw them together since Spring Break. The way they moved like two magnets, the way they looked at each other, was something Sansa wasn’t sure she had ever seen, and she was curious if she would be able to capture it. They turned on some movie that Sansa didn’t really notice. She was too wrapped up in her sketch.

When the movie finished, Jon drunkenly announced that they should get the air mattresses set up, so Sansa set her sketch aside, pleased with how it was turning out, and began helping as they pushed the coffee table off to the side of the room with the two chairs. Once they had the two mattresses inflated, and Gendry had retrieved some sleeping bags from the front hall closet and extra pillows from the linen closet, they turned on another movie, Jon laid down and passed out, and Sansa turned back to her sketch.

It was almost midnight, and Arya was on the verge of falling asleep with her head on Gendry’s shoulder. She twisted slightly so that her chin was resting on his shoulder and looked up at his face, admiring how handsome he was. He seemed more relaxed than she had ever seen him, and she felt a wave of guilt over how much shit she had given him for being nervous about her brothers. It had clearly been weighing on him the entire time they had known each other. But between their rather intense love-making that afternoon, the long hot shower, and finally having everything out in the open with Robb and Jon, Gendry was very much at ease. He smiled down at her lazily, placing a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. 

“Take me to bed,” Arya said quietly. 

“I heard that,” Robb grumbled from the other side of the couch. “Maybe try to control yourselves while we’re here please? I still haven’t totally decided not to kick your ass, Gendry.”

“Sure, Robb,” Arya said, rolling her eyes. She stood up and reached for Gendry’s hand. He grasped it and stood up, and they walked back towards his bedroom hand in hand. Sansa smiled at how practiced the action was, as if this is how they went to bed every night. It was a sweet, boring, every day moment that made Sansa’s heart warm. Leave it to Arya to find her soulmate on her first try. 

She looked down at the sketch, making a couple more small marks, pleased with how it had turned out. She wanted to do a few finishing touches, but Robb waslaying down so she decided she would finish in the morning, as she was always up before everyone else anyway. She grabbed her pajamas and her toothbrush and let herself into the bathroom in the hallway. When she was on her way back, she heard a quiet moan and a thump as she walked past Gendry’s room, and she rolled her eyes. But Robb was already snoring along with Jon, so she settled on the couch with the pillow and sleeping bag, smiling as she dozed off, glad that her sister was happy.  
*********  
Arya clicked the door shut, and tugged on Gendry’s hand, pulling him close enough so that she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and kiss him sweetly.

“I told you everything would be fine,” she mumbled against his lips. They got ready for bed as usual, but while Gendry climbed into their bed in his sleep pants, Arya stripped down completely, having no intention of listening to Robb. She turned off the light and crawled into bed, immediately pressing up against him and biting at his neck.

“Arya, your brothers are one wall away,” he whispered, remembering why Arya always got her way as she rubbed him through his pants. 

“So I don’t get birthday sex?” Arya pouted.

“Wasn’t that the whole point of this afternoon?” He asked, bringing his hand up to pinch one of her nipples, his heart not really in the argument.

“It wasn’t technically my birthday this afternoon,” Arya said, nodding towards the clock on his bedside table that read 12:03.

“Infallible logic, m’lady,” Gendry whispered, rolling so that he could press Arya into the bed. “We have to be quiet for real this time,” he said, leaning down to suck a nipple into his mouth, rolling the other one between two fingers. Arya bit on her knuckles when that hand drifted between their bodies and found her clit. He rubbed her in deliberate circles for a minute, before dipping down and pressing two fingers deep into her, finding her moisture and spreading it up to her nub. He repeated this motion a couple more times until he deemed her to be wet enough. He pushed his pants down enough to pull out his cock as he pushed up onto his knees. He kissed her tenderly as he lined up with her entrance. He entered her in one swift motion and Arya let out a quiet moan. He was resisting the urge to fuck her hard and fast, knowing it would make too much noise, and the strain caused him to bring the arm he wasn’t leaning on up to brace against the wall. He hit the wall a little harder than he meant to, making a soft thump. They both stilled, and when the house remained quiet, Gendry pulled his hips back and began thrusting slowly. Arya reached up, cupping his face in her hands, and pulling him down so she could kiss him. Once they had settled into a rhythm that wasn’t making too much noise, Gendry moved his hand from the wall and brought it between them, pinching her nipple again. 

“Oh,” she gasped, moaning a little as she broke away from their kiss. 

He moved his lips to her neck and breathed, “Shhh,” next to her ear. He released her nipple and let his hand slip between their bodies, pinching her clit this time before he began to rub in circles as he continued to thrust slow and deep. He heard her release a huff of air. “You wanna moan my name so badly right now, don’t you?” He whispered. He felt her nod her head next to his. “I want you to. I love when you tell everyone who can hear how good I fuck you.” He thrust hard at the word “fuck” and Arya whimpered. “But not tonight. It’s our secret tonight,” he continued, picking up the pace a little as he began to lose control. He felt her walls start to flutter around him.

He pinched her clit again as she quietly whined and fell apart beneath him. He swallowed her whine in a kiss as he followed her over the edge, spilling inside her after three more thrusts. He almost collapsed on top of her, but he managed to loop an arm around her waist, rolling them so that she was on top of him instead. He stayed inside her as she lay her head on his chest, still catching her breath, running his fingers lightly up and down her spine.

“That was different,” she whispered after a few minutes, shifting her hips so that his now soft manhood slipped out of her. 

“Sorry I got a little carried away with the dirty talk,” he said, flushing as he remembered the things he had said. 

“I liked it,” she whispered, twirling a finger in his chest hair.

“Happy birthday,” he said.

Arya rested for another moment before rolling off of him and letting herself into the bathroom. He had pulled his pants back up and was asleep by the time she got back from the bathroom, so she pulled the blankets back up and curled by his side as he unconsciously rolled onto his side and pulled her in close. 

“I love you, Gendry,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

“Arya,” she heard Gendry mumble as she drifted off to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's another one. Cuz I'm nice.

Sansa woke up early when she heard running water. It was still dark outside, but she liked working early in the morning when there was no one around to bother her. She slipped off the couch, grabbed her portfolio bag, and let herself into the kitchen, sliding the door closed so the light wouldn’t wake up her brothers. 

She set about making coffee, finding everything she needed and getting the percolator going. She ate an apple while she waited for the coffee to brew, and poured herself a cup. She settled at the kitchen table and pulled out her pencils and her sketch from the night before. She began making some of the finishing touches when she heard the kitchen door sliding open and looked up to see Sandor leaning in the door, looking a little confused. 

“I didn’t expect anyone else to be awake,” he said quietly, closing the door behind him. He walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a large to-go coffee cup. “Can I have some of this?” He asked, grabbing the coffee pot. 

“It’s your coffee, help yourself,” Sansa said, smiling at him. “I don’t sleep much, I always do my best work early in the morning,” she said, indicating the drawing in front of her.

He filled up his cup and put on the lid on, before opening another cabinet and grabbing a protein bar. He moved over and looked at the drawing of Arya and Gendry for a moment.

“What do you think?” Sansa said, feeling a rush of adrenaline at the proximity of the large man, looking up at his face while he looked at her work. She had meant it the night before when she said she didn’t think he was ugly, but while she looked at his face, focussed on her work, a wrinkle in the space between his one eyebrow and the space where the other eyebrow should be, she noticed the way his skin pulled because of the scars on his face, so much different from how most faces moved, and she decided he was beautiful.

“It’s nice,” he said, his eyes moving to hers as he realized she had been looking at him. He pulled at the hair that he used to conceal his scars, turning away. “I don’t know much about art but it looks like them,” he said, turning back to the kitchen door. He didn’t need to leave for the reserve yet, he had given himself enough time to make himself coffee, but he didn’t know what else to say to her. “I’ll see you later,” he said quietly as he slipped out of the kitchen, not looking back at Sansa. 

Sansa felt disappointed that she scared him away. She really did enjoy his company, even if he was about as far away from her usual type as it was possible to get. She tended to be drawn to charming but deeply flawed men, narcissists at their core, who loved being the center of attention. But Sandor was withdrawn and obviously not entirely comfortable with people looking at him. And she couldn’t seem to stop looking.

She focused instead on her drawing, having another cup of coffee as she finished up and set it aside. She thought maybe Arya would like to have it, and decided it would make a good birthday present, and she pulled out the transfer acceptance letter that was tucked into the front pocket of her portfolio and set it on top of the drawing. Her relationship with her little sister hadn’t always been as amiable as it was now, and the thought of living in the same town again made her a little anxious. Their relationship hadn’t really blossomed until Sansa had moved out two years before. But she felt sure that Arya would be excited to learn that Sansa was going to be moving to Oldtown in January. She had learned everything she could at the Vale Arts Academy, and she felt like the attitude that art meant suffering that she got from everyone there was dragging her down, blocking her. There was also a computer science minor available to arts students at Oldtown that she was keen to explore, as she had developed an interest in working with electronic installations.

She put away the rest of her supplies and started cooking bacon and turned on the electric kettle, knowing sunrise would mean Arya would be up soon, and she wanted to have her birthday breakfast ready when she was.  
*********  
Arya woke up as a ray of sunlight hit her face. She was on her side facing the window, with Gendry spooning her, just as she had fallen asleep the night before. She grinned as she felt his hardness pressing against her ass, and wiggled against him. His hips moved towards her and he moaned a little in his sleep. She rolled in his arms to face him, before pushing his shoulder so he rolled onto his back. She was on top of him by the time his eyes opened for the first time. 

“Good morning,” she whispered. He had made her a complete mess, trying to keep quiet while he fucked her the night before, and she was ready for some revenge. She had never put any clothes on before she went to sleep, so she looked at his sleepy eyes as she grasped a breast with one hand and slipped the other hand between her legs, touching herself and gasping as she rubbed against his erection. She grinned as his eyes widened and his hands moved to her hips with a grunt. 

“Gendry, you have to be quiet,” She whispered, feeling how her wetness was soaking through his pants. His brow furrowed as he realized what she meant. His eyes widened for a moment of panic, but she slipped her hand off of her clit and into his pants to wrap around him and the panic disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. She pushed his pants down just enough to release him and lifted up onto her knees, sinking down onto him quickly and biting her lip. She gasped as he sat up quickly, his hand pushing her hair aside to wrap around the back of her neck as she began to rock up and down on him. He pulled her into a searing kiss before he lied back, taking her hands and holding eye contact as she moved above him. 

It wasn’t necessarily what she had in mind, as Gendry seemed much better at staying quiet than she had been, but she enjoyed herself nonetheless, rocking on top of him as they held hands and his eyes bored into hers. They came quietly together. When they were finished, Arya lay back down beside him, her head on his chest and his arm around her shoulders. He rolled away from her after a few minutes but rolled back quickly, holding a small box. 

“Happy birthday,” he said as he placed the box in her hands.

“I told you I didn’t want anything.” 

“I didn’t spend any money on it,” he said, pressing the box towards her.

She unwrapped the small box and opened it. Inside was a fine silver chain with a tiny seashell on it.

“It was my gram’s. My grandpa gave it to her when they were dating. He made the chain and she picked up the shell on their first date when they were on a walk on the beach. She died when I was ten, but she gave me this before she died and told me to give it to someone special,” he explained quietly.

She sat up and fastened the chain around her neck, letting a hand drift back to hold the shell, looking at Gendry, who had tears in his eyes. She leaned back down towards him and pressed her lips to his. 

“Thank you. I love it,” she whispered as his hand wound through her hair to hold her close.

They kissed gently for a few minutes before they got up and dressed. They walked out into the living room and Arya was unsurprised to find that Sansa was already awake. She curled up on one side of the couch and looked at Robb and Jon sleeping, smiling to herself while Gendry let himself into the kitchen. He found Sansa putting some bacon into the oven.

“Good morning,” Gendry said, smiling.

“Good morning. Did you two get any sleep?” Sansa said, raising her eyebrows suggestively at him. He flushed but didn’t say anything as he grabbed the coffee pot and a mug for himself. She watched quietly as he reached to turn on the tea kettle. “The kettle boiled five minutes ago,” she said as she started to make pancake batter.

Gendry made Arya a cup of tea as she wandered into the kitchen. She took the warm mug and leaned against the counter from which she usually watched Gendry cook. He drank his coffee and began washing the dishes Sansa had already used. 

“Your present is on the table,” Sansa said.

Arya wandered over to the kitchen table and picked up an envelope and a small sketch. She could tell immediately that it was her and Gendry, and she smiled. It was perfectly simple but heartfelt, the kind of gift that she always preferred but Sansa had only started giving her the last couple of years. 

She turned her attention to the envelope, noticing it was neither the shape or weight of a card, and it was already opened. “Sansa do you need this letter?” She said, holding it out.

“I mean I would like to have it back, but I want you to look at it first,” she said, not looking at Arya, but smiling.

Arya opened the letter, scanning the first sentences of the top page before letting out a gasp. “You’re going to be here?”

Sansa flipped the batch of pancakes in the skillet and looked up at Arya. “Is that okay?”

Arya didn’t say anything, but she did walk over to Sansa and pull her into a hug. Arya laughed as Sansa hugged her back.

Sansa finished cooking and dished up three plates of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. They sat around the kitchen table enjoying their breakfast. Grenn joined them quickly, followed by Jon and Robb, slightly groggy but not terribly hungover. They discussed plans for the day, and Arya decreed that she wanted everyone to relax during the day so she could work on a paper, and they would go out and have a good time that night. Even Clegane seemed keen on the plan when he arrived home that afternoon, smiling at Sansa as she told him the plan.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A night out.

Sansa insisted on her and Arya getting ready for the evening together. Arya tried to protest but Sansa looked so excited she couldn’t say no. So after they all ate dinner, Sansa dragged Arya into Gendry’s room with her bag and set about primping them up for the evening. She started with putting her own hair into large curlers, then combed through Arya’s hair, thinking. She ended up curling differently sized pieces of hair and then running her hands through all of it, creating a gently curled and tousled look that wasn’t too different from her regular look. She also managed to talk her into letting her put a little makeup on, but she only did a coat of brown mascara and a light pink gloss on her lips. 

Arya was pleased to find, when she looked at the final result, that she still mostly looked like herself. Sansa was an artist, after all. She knew better than to do the full hairdo and makeup that she did for herself on Arya. Arya put on a crop-top with her favorite high-waisted jeans and a leather jacket, and finished off the look with her old black high-tops. Arya sat and talked to Sansa as she finished off her own makeup and put on the bohemian dress and denim jacket she had for the evening, discussing Sansa’s plans for when she moved to Oldtown.

Sansa did a final once-over of Arya before they left the room, adjusting a few pieces of hair. Her hand drifted down and held the small shell hanging around Arya’s neck. “This is nice. It’s old, but well made,” she said, unable to turn off her eye for craftsmanship.

“Gendry gave it to me,” Arya said, feeling proud. “It was his grandmother’s.”

Sansa didn’t say anything for a minute, appreciating the necklace while she picked her words. “There’s a part of me that wants to tell you that you’re moving too fast,” she started. Arya tensed up. “But I see the way you are together. You’re still just you, but now there’s someone else around. You compliment each other. All of my past relationships that make me want to warn you against moving too fast were never like that. So I feel like what I want to say is that I support you. It doesn’t take long to see how good you and Gendry are together.” 

Arya was quiet for a moment, though the tension dissipated quickly. “He gets me.”

“I know Arya, you don’t have to explain. I’m just trying to tell you that I have your back in this. Jon and Robb are cool, but now we have to deal with mom and dad.”

Arya had not even considered how her parents might feel about this relationship, but she decided it could wait. She cringed a little at the thought, but turned and headed out into the living room. The guys were all finishing a round of beers and stood up, ready to go. Arya’s eyes found Gendry, giving him a shy look as she reached for his hand. He grasped it quickly and pulled her close, kissing her cheek and whispering, “You look beautiful.” Arya missed the sultry way that Sansa looked at Clegane, and the shocked but pleased look he gave her in return. 

They grabbed a few umbrellas, and headed out into the rain, huddled together. Robb and Grenn led the way, insisting they could find the best bars to be at for the night. Jon and Sansa shared an umbrella as Clegane walked next to them with his hood pulled up. Arya and Gendry ended up bringing up the rear, standing close under their umbrella. Gendry kept his hand around Arya’s shoulders despite the fact that he would have been far more comfortable with it in her back pocket, but Robb kept looking back every few minutes as though he was expecting Gendry to be undressing her in the middle of the street. 

They arrived downtown and ducked into a bar right on the first corner that had good beer and good music. Arya, having not gone out much since moving to Oldtown, looked around excitedly as they walked in. Gendry put their umbrella on the coat rack and went to the bar to get drinks with the guys while Arya wandered towards the stage with Sansa, listening to the local band that was playing. He saw her pull out her phone and send a few texts, assuming she was texting Meera to come join them. He handed her a beer and they listened and swayed to the music for a while until the band announced that they were going to take a break.

“Perfect, Jeyne is almost here,” Sansa said, turning away from the stage.

“You invited Jeyne Poole to my birthday?” Arya asked, looking highly annoyed.

“Oh come on, she’s nice to you now, and I haven’t seen her in months,” Sansa said, looking towards the door.

“Great,” Arya drawled. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom. Keep an eye out for Meera please, she’s on her way.” Arya weaved her way through the crowd towards the restroom sign, taking her time. She relieved herself and checked her reflection in the mirror before she went back out, being sure there was nothing Jeyne could tease her for. She stopped at the bar on the way back, ordering a shot of tequila and another beer. She handed the bartender some cash, took her shot quickly, and headed back towards the side of the dance floor where she had left her siblings, Clegane, Grenn, and Gendry. She finally saw Clegane and Gendry towering over everyone around them and shoved her way through the crowd towards them. As she approached, she saw Sansa leaning close to Clegane, one hand on his chest, saying something that actually made him laugh. Arya was a little curious about this but she was quickly distracted when she noticed that Jeyne had indeed arrived, and she was laughing animatedly, her hand on Gendry’s arm. He looked uncomfortable but was obviously trying to be nice. As Arya approached, Jeyne caught sight of her and pulled her into a tight hug,

“Oh my god Arya, happy birthday! Why haven’t I seen you since you moved to town?” She exclaimed. 

Arya quickly pulled out of her grasp and said, “Thanks. Guess I’ve been busy,” without much enthusiasm as Jeyne stepped back towards Gendry, placing her hand back on his arm. Arya’s eyes flitted between them and he looked a little panicked, but Arya knew he wasn’t interested in her. She smiled at him and rolled her eyes as he stepped away from Jeyne and towards her. She handed him her beer. He took a large gulp and handed it back. “Could you do me a favor, Jeyne, and keep your hands off my boyfriend?” She said, as Gendry’s arm slipped around her waist. Jeyne’s eyes had been on Gendry the whole time he moved towards Arya. Her smile vanished and her eyes became cold at Arya’s words. 

“Of course, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize,” she trailed off as Arya rolled her eyes again and turned away, grabbing Gendry’s hand and pulling him further into the crowd as the band came back on stage. They played a slower song and Arya turned towards Gendry, pulling him close and dancing with him. Their foreheads touched, and his hands held her around the waist while she held him around the neck with the hand that wasn’t holding her beer. They swayed to the song, Arya enjoying the bass and moving her hips in time with the beat. When the song ended, he kissed her on the nose and pulled her back towards their friends, avoiding Jon and Robb’s eyes, though he would have seen nothing more than mild exasperation. Jeyne was nowhere to be seen but Meera had arrived and she gave Arya a hug. 

“Happy birthday! Hey Mr. Waters!” She said, waving at Gendry.

“Gods please don’t call me that. It’s Gendry, Meera,” Gendry responded, very red and very uncomfortable. 

“I know, I’m sorry! I couldn’t resist!” Meera said, laughing hard along with Arya and Robb at Gendry’s reaction.

“You deserved that,” Jon said, clapping Gendry on the shoulder.

As a group they decided it was time to move on to one of the bars down the road that didn’t have live music so they could all talk a little more. They managed to secure a big booth in the corner of a small bar where the guys knew the bartender, a big friendly guy named Hot Pie. They ordered a round of beers and a birthday shot for Arya. She noticed her roommate, Allana Tyrell sitting at the bar with a two women and an obviously gay man. She waved at Allana, who waved back, and the others turned to look at them. Arya recognized one of them from her history class, and the other one she recognized as an old friend of Sansa’s from summer camp. All three women stood up and walked over.

“Hey Arya, happy birthday!” Allana said as she slid into the booth next to her, giving her an awkward side hug. “Is this the reason you’re never in our room? I get it,” she said giving Gendry, who was on the other side of Arya, an approving look. He flushed and laughed, then shook her hand, introducing himself. 

Sansa and Margaery were laughing and hugging, and Margaery squealed when Sansa told her about transferring down. “Do you have somewhere to live? Loras graduates in December and he’s going to move to Storm’s End to be with his boyfriend, you could have his room!” 

“Happy birthday, Arya,” the girl from her history class said.

“Thanks, Violet. How are you tonight?”

“Oh, you know, just —“

“Violet?” It was Grenn who interrupted, a surprising amount of venom in his voice. “I thought your name was Jeyne.”

“She goes by her middle name,” Margaery supplied after a moment of silence. 

Arya looked back at Violet, realizing this was probably the woman Grenn had been hung up on all semester. She didn’t understand why he was so angry, but Violet apparently did. She was very red and avoiding his eyes. Grenn continued to glare at her for another minute, before chugging the rest of his drink and storming out into the rain. 

“Shit,” she whispered, before grabbing her jacket from the barstool where she left it and chasing after him.

“That was weird,” Meera said.

“Is that Grenn?” Margaery asked, looking after the two people who had just run out into the rain.

“Uh… Yeah. Do you know what that was all about?” Jon said.

“I do, but I’m not sure it’s my place to tell that story,” Margaery said.  
**********  
Grenn found himself out in the rain, seething, and unsure what to do. He could just go home, but he was too angry, he wanted to keep moving. He had spent the better part of two months feeling like he was going crazy, wondering why he felt like he knew this woman. He had spent hours at night lying in bed trying to convince himself that he was imagining all the similarities between her and the girl he had loved all those years ago. He felt stupid, remembering only now that Violet had indeed been her middle name. He didn’t know if he was more angry at her for keeping this from him for so long, or at himself for having forgotten so much about his first love that he didn’t even recognize her when she walked back into his life. He wandered down the alley next to the bar and kicked the dumpster hard, letting out a strangled sob.

“Grenn,” her voice rang out from the entrance to the alley. He looked at her, and even through the rain, in the dim lighting, he could see the tears streaming down her face under the hood of her raincoat. It sucked all of the anger right out of him. He had never wanted to make her cry again. He remembered how she had cried the day he had packed his bag and left the farm. He closed the distance between them in two steps, grasping her face in his hands and kissing her hard, even as his own tears spilled over. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He sobbed as he broke away from her lips. “Years… I’ve spent years thinking of you, missing you every day.”

“But you didn’t even recognize me. Until the night you gave me a ride home, I wasn’t even sure you would remember me,” Violet said before she was overcome with tears and pushed him away. “When you left you said you would find me one day. And I was just waiting, I was stupid enough to believe you, and when you did find me again, you just… it was pretty clear to me that you weren’t looking for me the way I had looked for you. The way you would hit on me made me feel like I was stupid for ever believing you really loved me.” 

Grenn didn’t say anything for a while, contemplating what she had said. He thought back on how she must have felt when he walked into their first meeting and called her Jeyne and shamelessly ogled her without a hint of recognition.

“I’m so sorry,” he finally said. “It broke me, having to leave you. I believed for a while that I would find you. But by the third or fourth home after, I convinced myself that you would have forgotten me, like everyone else did, that you were better off without me. It left a hole in my heart, and I filled it the only way a dumb teenage boy knows how. But I promise, since I found you again, there has been no one. You started fixing that hole before I even realized what was happening.” He dropped to his knees and grabbed her hands, not caring about getting wet as the rain had already soaked through his clothes. He had left his jacket in the bar when he stormed out. “Please give me a chance to show you that I’m still the guy you fell in love with. Please.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment, but she seemed to find something sincere in his eyes. “Okay,” she whispered, tugging his hands. 

He stood up quickly and began peppering kisses all over her face, whispering her name over and over again, like a prayer, “Violet, my Violet,” as the rain poured around them.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all didn't mind the excessive amounts of sap in the Grenn/Violet storyline. His story in the books/show breaks my heart and I just wanted to give them the happy ending they deserved.
> 
> Here's this chapter, with some goodbyes and a little fluff/smut.

Grenn let himself back into the house around dawn. He heard a muffled laugh from the kitchen, and went in to find Clegane and Sansa sitting at the kitchen table, each with a cup of coffee.

“Where have you been?” Clegane asked, still smiling from whatever Sansa had said that made him laugh.

“At the diner. Violet and I had a lot to talk about,” he said, smiling to himself. “Sorry for storming out like that.”

“It’s alright. Do you want to talk about it?” Sansa asked, pushing a third chair out at the table.

“Nah… I’ve been talking about it all night. I just need to get some sleep I think,” Grenn said, rubbing his eyes and turning back towards the kitchen door, sliding it shut behind him.

“So…” Sandor said after a minute of silence.

“So what?” Sansa said, smiling warmly.

“I was just thinking maybe when you move here in the spring, I could take you out to dinner sometime?” He asked, looking away from her and tugging at his hair.

Sansa was quiet for a minute, but she was still smiling. When he finally looked back at her, she said, “That would be great. Maybe I should give you my number and we can get to know each other a bit in the meantime?”

He finally returned her smile, not feeling self-conscious about a woman looking at his face for the first time in his life.  
*********  
The ride to the airport that afternoon was a cramped affair, with Jon, Arya, and Sansa all in the backseat of Gendry’s car. They got all the luggage into the airport and the three older siblings got checked in before they all went to security together. Arya and Sansa hugged while Jon, Robb, and Gendry said their goodbyes. There were hugs but there were also a few more threats made in regards to Arya. 

Robb pulling Arya into one of his bone crushing hugs and kissed her head, whispering, “You call me if he does anything, I’ve still got friends here that can deal with him.”

“Robb, you realize I’m way more capable of doing damage than your business school friends if it really came to that, right?” Arya asked, laughing at him.

“Still. I love you Ar. I’ve gotta protect my pack,” Robb said, referencing their old family sigil of a dire-wolf.

“But Gendry is part of our pack too,” Arya said, looking very seriously at Robb. “He’s not going to hurt me. Ease up on him a little, I’m going to need your help with dad.”

Robb considered this for a moment. He nodded his head and turned to join Sansa in the security line. Jon pulled Arya into a hug, lifting her up and swinging her back and forth a couple times. He set her back down next to Gendry. 

“Take care of each other. Call if you need anything,” he said, turning to follow Robb with a wave. 

Gendry put an arm around Arya’s shoulders as they both waved back. They turned to head back out to the car.

“I told you they wouldn’t kill you. Now we just have to worry about my father. Mum likes you, she’ll be easy, but dad? I just don’t know…” Arya teased. She looked up to find Gendry gripping the steering wheel tightly and looking straight ahead as all the color drained out of his face.  
**********  
“You’re looking very fancy,” Gendry said later that evening as Grenn came out of his room in a button down and some slacks. Gendry was sitting on one end of the couch with a pile of papers in his lap, and Arya was stretched over the rest of the couch, going through flashcards for a test in High Valyrian.

“I don’t think I’m going to get another chance with Violet after the way I’ve been acting all semester, so I need to not fuck this one up. I’m gonna take her to that nice seafood place over looking the marina. Do I look dumb? Am I trying too hard?” Grenn said, pulling at his shirt. 

“You look very handsome, and trying too hard is better than not trying hard enough,” Arya said, as Grenn moved on to smoothing his beard as he looked at his reflection in the window. “You ever going to tell us what the hell happened last night?”

“We… Knew each other a long time ago. But I knew her as Violet. I met her this time around as Jeyne and I didn’t recognize her. It’s a long story. But I loved her once, and I’m getting a second chance. I was just a little shocked last night is all.”

“Well, I would like to hear that long story sometime when you don’t have somewhere to be,” Arya said. Then Grenn she had met at the beginning of the semester was not the same guy nervously grooming himself in a window. She had noticed that he had been different the past few weeks especially, and Arya was very curious about what kind of history Violet and him could have that had such a quick and profound effect on him. “You look great, just be nice and don’t hit on your waitress,” Arya said. 

Grenn let out a small chuckle. “I’ll see you both tomorrow,” he said as he grabbed his keys and left.

As the front door clicked shut, Arya set her flashcards on the coffee table, grabbed the stack of papers off of Gendry’s lap and put them on the floor, and then straddled his hips. “Can we go have loud sex now?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Gendry said, standing up and walking back to his room with Arya’s legs wrapped around his waist. He dropped her on the bed and pulled his shirt off before he crawled on top of her, kissing her hard and shoving a hand up her shirt, massaging a breast and grinding his manhood against her leg. 

Ironically, it turned into one of their quieter love-making sessions, excluding the last few days while her siblings had been in the house. They stripped each other quickly, and Gendry lay on his belly between Arya’s legs, bringing her to orgasm with his mouth before he pressed into her. He kissed her slowly as he moved inside of her, breathing her air and swallowing the sounds he tore out of her. He stopped kissing her when he felt her approach her peak, pulling back slightly and opening his eyes so he could watch her face as she came. He followed quickly with a groan that was muffled as he buried his face in her neck. 

They were laying in bed later, with the lights off and the house quiet. Arya was drifting off to sleep, with Gendry spooning her as he whispered, “Are you awake?”

“Kind of. What’s up?”

“It was just something you said to Robb at the airport. You said I was part of your pack. Did you mean that?”

Arya rolled over to face Gendry, cupping his cheek with one hand. “Yes. You’re my family. That means my family is your family too.”

Gendry felt overwhelmed, and kissed Arya sweetly, not knowing what to say. He knew she loved him but he didn’t know she considered him family. A few years ago, he had his mother and his grandfather. Now he had not only gained a step-father and found his birth father, but he had this amazing woman that, for some reason that he couldn’t understand, had fallen in love with him. He still struggled with feeling inadequate, but hearing her say things so matter-of-fact made it easier for him to believe every day that he could be worthy of her. He made her happy, and she made him happy.

And they were family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so that’s it besides the epilogue. In the interest of honesty, I should say that I have not written the epilogue yet. I do, however, have a pretty good plan for it, and I promise to have it up by midnight mountain time on Friday, or I’ll post my address and you can all send me letter bombs for being a liar.


	17. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm a liar guys. Only an hour late so hopefully you'll forgive me. This has been so fun, sharing with you all, and I appreciate all the support and encouragement you provided. Thanks!
> 
> Gendry and Ned have a conversation.

Arya stood at the bottom of the escalator leading out of the secured area in the Winterfell airport, craning her neck as if it would somehow make him appear sooner. Jon stood beside her, smiling in amusement at her obvious giddiness. It was three days after the Winter Solstice and Gendry was coming up to spend a few days over the new year. Arya had not gone more than a day without seeing him since they had started dating, and it had now been over two weeks, and he couldn’t get to the bottom of that escalator soon enough. 

“I told you that we didn’t have to leave so soon. We wouldn’t have been waiting for twenty minutes if you had listened to me,” Jon said.

“Shut up,” Arya responded as she finally saw a messy mop of jet black hair at the top of the escalator. She pushed her way through the crowd of people waiting for their own loved ones and threw herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist as soon as he was clear of the escalator. She buried her face in his shoulder, fighting back unexpected tears and she gasped, “I missed you,” as his arms wrapped around her bottom to keep her from falling.

“Me too,” he whispered into her hair before she pulled her face back to look at him. He placed a tender kiss on her lips before setting her back on the ground. “Hey, Jon, thanks for coming to pick me up,” he said, turning to Jon and giving him a quick hug. They picked up his bag from luggage claim and went out to the car, filling each other in on their solstice celebrations.

As they approached the Stark house, Jon cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Arya, who twisted around in her seat to look at Gendry. “Dad wants to talk to you. I told him that we were seeing each other at the beginning of break. I said we wouldn’t stop seeing each other so his only choice is to get on board, but… he still wants to talk to you. I tried to insist that he talk to us together but he is being really insistent that you have a one on one.”

Gendry swallowed hard and nodded. He had been expecting this, had asked his mother and even Bronn for some advice on how best to go into it, but he was still very nervous. Ned Stark had been nothing but kind and welcoming to him, introduced him to his birth father despite having no actual investment in the situation. Gendry felt an urge to make Ned proud, to impress upon him that his kindness was not wasted, but he knew how it looked. He had considered asking Robert for advice, since he knew Ned well, but when he had mentioned that he was seeing Arya, Robert had gone on a long and rambling story about Ned’s late sister Lyanna and by the end, Gendry had decided maybe his father wasn’t the most rational person to consult about relationships.

So as they walked into the house and set down his luggage, Gendry was unsurprised to find Ned standing in the entryway waiting for them. He made eye contact with Gendry and turned to walk down the hallway that led to his office without a word. Gendry looked at Arya, who smiled encouragingly and kissed him quickly, before he followed.

Ned was sitting behind his desk when Gendry entered. “Please close the door behind you, Gendry,” he said in his usual calm voice. Gendry did as he was told and sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk. He finally looked up and found that Ned actually had a small smile on his face.

“My daughter tells me that you two are romantically involved,” he said, still with the small smile, but it was actually making Gendry more nervous.

“Yes, Mr. Stark,” Gendry said, trying to subtly wipe his sweaty hands on his pants.

“Ned is still fine, Gendry. You understand my concern of course? I don’t usually have to have intimidating conversations with Sansa’s boyfriends. None of them were ever her teacher,” Ned went on.

“Yes, of course. I know it looks… But nothing ever happened when I was her teacher, I swear sir,” Gendry finished in a rush.

“Nothing?” Ned pressed.

“No,” Gendry said, before quickly correcting himself. “Yes… I once kissed her hand about halfway through the term. It was inappropriate and I’m very sorry.”

Ned’s smile widened. “Well, that’s… sweet. So you did develop feelings for her during that time?”

“Yes.”

“Gendry, over Spring Break it was very apparent to me that you are a good man. You are kind and you have a good future ahead of you. It’s one of the reasons I felt compelled to meddle in your life enough to bring you and Robert together. I think that you are perhaps a little too old for Arya, at least at this point. Maybe five years down the road, none of us would have bat an eye at it. As it is now, you can see why I’m having a little trouble?”

Gendry nodded, the tension in his chest giving his a stomach ache as Ned leaned back in his chair.

“Ned, believe me I never expected to be sitting here having this conversation. I have never dated a woman that was notably younger than me, and the last thing I ever wanted was to put any doubt in anyone’s mind about how my relationship with Arya started. We both knew by the end of spring break last year how we felt about each other, but I avoided pursuing anything further not just until I was done being her teacher, but for months after. I didn’t want there to be doubt that we got together under the right circumstances. It was torture, avoiding her, but I did it because I care about her and I want us to have a future together. That obviously wouldn’t have been possible if I had crossed any lines. But I love her, and she loves me, and we’re going to be together. I’m sure you know how hard it can be to talk Arya out of something once she has set her mind on it, and I… I don’t know if I can go back to living without her.”

“And for the future? Are you planning on marrying her one day?”

Gendry paused at this. They had talked about the future, places they could go together where they could both find work in their respective careers, but they had never discussed marriage. 

“We haven’t discussed that. I’m not entirely sure marriage is something she wants, but I can promise you that if she does ever give me an indication, I’ll buy a ring the next day. And if not, well I’ll be by her side until my dying breath anyway.”

Ned was smiling wide at this point. “That was the right answer, Gendry. I think I have tortured you enough today. I’m still a little uncomfortable with this, but I appreciate you sitting down and having this conversation with me. As long as you continue to show Arya the respect and love that you appears to be giving her now, you have my approval,” he said while standing up. He walked around the desk and grasped Gendry’s hand as he stood.

“Thank you, Ned,” Gendry said, smiling in relief.

“Now will you please go spend some time with Arya? She’s been moping around the house for two weeks, and it has put a real damper on the holiday season.”

Gendry laughed and followed Ned out of the room. He found Arya in her room with Nymeria. The large dog sat up quickly and jumped up, placing her paws on his chest and wagging her tail. He bent down and gave the big mutt a good scratch behind the ear before he straightened up and walked over to sit next to Arya on the bed, looking around. He had not been in her room before. There were a lot of posters of different bands, and pictures of her with her family. He saw a picture of them that had been taken on the night of her birthday in a frame on her bedside table. 

“You survived,” Arya said, scooting closer to him as he lifted an arm and placed it around her shoulders. 

“I survived. Your dad is pretty cool,” Gendry said as Nymeria hopped up onto the bed and laid down beside him. Arya snorted and shook her head lightly.

The evening was a nice one, catching up with all the Starks. It was very similar to the evenings he had spent there over spring break, only he didn’t have to avoid looking at Arya and he wasn’t completely miserable. It started snowing when everyone started heading to bed. Jon showed Gendry the guest room he was sleeping in before he turned in. Gendry went back to the living room and sat on the sofa with Arya, watching the snow fall outside the windows. 

“It’s late. You should go to bed,” he said, trying and failing to suppress a yawn of his own.

Arya grumbled something about not sleeping well, but he stood up and pulled on her hands until she stood too. He walked her to her bedroom, kissing her thoroughly before he opened the door and pushed her inside. He went back to the guest room, changed and brushed his teeth before settling into the large and very comfortable bed. He was almost asleep when he heard the door creak open and then shut again quietly. He felt a tug on the blankets as Arya slipped into the bed beside him, followed by a pressure by his feet. He sat up and saw Nymeria curling up at the foot of the bed.

“You can’t be here, Arya,” he said as he lay back against the pillows, his hands wrapping around her waist to pull her close. 

“Just for a few hours. I haven’t been sleeping all that great without you,” she mumbled, nuzzling into his chest. He felt his cock stir at her proximity, especially sensitive after spending two weeks apart, and Arya sounded so tired that it wasn’t hard to prioritize her need for sleep.

“Just for a few hours,” he agreed. He did sleep better with her in his arms. “I love you.”

“Mmmm me too,” Arya mumbled, already dozing off into the best sleep she’d had in weeks.

It wasn’t just a few hours, and Catelyn discovered them in the morning. She wasn’t all that mad.

**Author's Note:**

> Would love to hear your thoughts.


End file.
